It All Leads To You
by Riddledcloud
Summary: When a strange visitor shows up in the ninja nation, no one knows what to expect. Though she slowly wins the heart of just about everyone she meets. Rated M for language and smut. Part one is very canon. Part two has been posted! /s/13006351/1/It-all-led-to-you i tried to post the link lol.
1. Chapter 1

_Chapter One_

I do not own Naruto! Please read and review! Thank you!

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 _Just keep moving, that's all you have to do, don't stop._

No matter how much she told herself, Avery knew that her legs weren't going to last much longer at this rate. Each step was taking its toll on her physical strength, while her energy was already on its last thread. The heat wasn't helping the situation either; since she had entered the desert each step almost seemed to take more from her.

She knew she didn't do well in heat. She had never been comfortable in it even as a child; she hated summers unless she had access to popsicles and air conditioning. The sun was beginning to sink down past the horizon, giving her some hope she might actually make it to shelter before she passed out either from exhaustion or heatstroke, as long as she could push past the pain she was already in from using her energy levels to near non-existence.

As she walked, she tried to keep herself focused on finding shelter; someplace safe that she could hide and rest. But her mind kept wandering back to what had made her run in the first place. Her home was destroyed by the one person she trusted most to protect it. With cold and unforgiving eyes he had killed her entire clan, her family, in his search for their most precious heirloom, the source of their power. Avery knew that she was lucky to have had enough energy left to grab it and run far enough to orb without him detecting her. It would take him a long time to find her now in this new land, if he ever did.

Not that Avery had any idea where she was, all she knew was she was away from there. For all she knew, or cared, she could be in Narnia.

 _I won't be safe until I find shelter, I need something._ The only relief now was the temperature beginning to drop as the sun disappeared from sight, but she knew she wouldn't last the night without a shelter of some kind. Her legs were beginning to shake so hard she wondered how she was still standing, until she wasn't.

One of her knees buckled under the weight of her step and her backpack suddenly felt twice as heavy as it had previous. With a new, furious, pounding in her head, and a ragged breath she looked around her. Just to her left she realized there was a structure she had been staring unseeingly past. If she could make it there she might be able to make it through the night.

With the thought of rest fresh in her mind, she managed to get back to her feet and force herself to keep moving holding tightly to the straps of her backpack. Only her will was left to force her forward with one agonizing step at a time. As she grew closer, she could see something there at the opening of the giant structure.

It was a person… no _two_ people, standing just outside the structure.

 _If I could just get there, they might know where I can rest._ She took another step, her vision swimming and her knees shaking hard. One more step and her knee buckled under her taking her to the ground again. She groaned in defeat; knowing that she wouldn't get back up from that one. She was done for now. But, as she lost consciousness, she thought she could just barely see the two figures approaching her.

 _Maybe…_

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All that could be heard in his office was the sound of a pen scratching against paper with calm confidence over the reports that littered his desk. Gaara was intent on his work; not wanting to spend more time in his office than he already did. He practically lived in it as it was, because it was where he would escape to when he couldn't sleep or wanted to be alone. He was new to the concept of sleep, after losing the Shukaku he found he could actually sleep without risk, but found it didn't always come easily. As he finished the last report for the evening, he set down his pen and sat back in his chair. The silence in his office was usual, comforting, when his mind was anything but silent. Of course, silence meant he could hear when someone was coming and from the sound of the footsteps, it was urgent.

 _Well, there goes what would have been my evening._

"Come in," He called before whoever it was coming to interrupt could even knock.

The door opened, "My Lord, we found a traveler unconscious just outside the village. We can't tell where she came from, but she is really bad shape." The man speaking was one of the village's Jonin that was posted at the village gates. He seemed short of breath, must have run here to get Gaara's permission to do something with their visitor.

"Transfer her to the hospital. Have them take care of her; I want someone stationed to check on her every hour until she wakes. Did she have any belongings with her?"

"Yes, a backpack."

"Take it to be searched, when it has been cleared, bring it to her hospital room. And I want to be informed as soon as she wakes," Gaara added.

"Yes sir," the Jonin said before he backed out of the office and ran back down the hallway, leaving Gaara to his silence once again.

Random travelers were not a common occurrence in Sunagakure. The desert was usually enough that if someone who was unfamiliar with where they were, they would generally avoid it altogether, especially since they usually knew the only thing out here was Suna. That led Gaara to believe that whoever this visitor was, she was not from around the Ninja Nation.

He settled back in his chair, and closed his eyes; allowing the silence to flow through him. It was always so calming here. Anytime someone would ask him why he didn't get a fan or something that would make noise, he just shrugged in response. No one understood the peace that came with total silence. Especially after having someone constantly whispering to you from the depths of your mind. Something so out of control like that could transform the suffocation of total silence into complete serenity. He took a deep breath before he stood and tucked his chair in, time to go home.

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When three days had passed with no word on the strange visitor, Gaara decided it was time he went down himself to check on her progress. Temari and Kankuro, his elder siblings, joined him as they usually did on such ventures. They walked together over to the hospital in silence. It reminded him of when they used to walk as children, only now there was none of the tension that had often been associated with a possible rampage on his part. Once they reached the hospital, they walked inside and up to the front desk.

The nurse at the front desk was young and clearly not expecting to look up into the eyes of her Kazekage. She blushed profusely before jumping to her feet. "Lord Gaara! What can I do for you?" she asked nervously.

"I need to know where the _unknown traveler_ is staying," Gaara said in an even tone. Not smiling, but also not unkind.

"Right! Umm…" The young medic ninja searched the papers scattered around before turning to find her superior.

"Lord Kazekage," A nurse walked out of the hallway from the right, "You must be looking for our visitor. This way, I've just come from checking on her."

The sand siblings followed the nurse to a room at the end of the hallway. She was the only patient in this room; attached to an IV drip, as well as a heart monitor. As they walked into the room, Gaara felt the energy stirring, she was just waking.

"Can you give me any information on her situation?" Gaara requested of the medical ninja, clearly more advanced than the young girl at the front desk.

"She was found just outside the village, unconscious, and brought here. We still don't know who she is or where she may have come from. She was unconscious when she was found at the gates." The medical ninja gave her report confidently. "Her vitals have all been stable since we got her in but she hasn't woken yet."

"Everything she had with her? Has it been searched?" Temari asked in a commanding tone as she raised her arms to cross over her chest, her weight shifted ever so slightly to one side which leaned her hip out

"Yes Ma'am, it's all here and has been searched thoroughly. We found nothing to deem dangerous and have not conducted any further searches."

"Thank you, that will be all," Kankuro said dismissively.

"Yes, Lord Kankuro." The med ninja bowed her head before exiting the room.

There was a brief silence in the room.

Avery was awake now but had not opened her eyes, she wasn't totally sure it would do her any good in this state to try to sit up. She knew she didn't have enough energy for a fight, and she knew nothing about the people who stood in the room with her, so she stayed silent; listening as they evaluated the situation.

"I don't see a headband, what village could she have come from?" Temari wondered aloud as she searched over the woman and her belongings.

"Not sure; seems like she was on the run from something. It's possible she may be a rogue from outside the Land of Fire." Kankuro offered.

"If she was rogue, why come here?" Gaara asked of his siblings without looking at them. He walked around toward the "sleeping" visitor, taking notice of a few things he was sure his siblings hadn't picked up on.

"I don't think she is from around here. I believe she may be from another world."

"Why would you think that, Gaara?" Temari asked.

"Look at her and look at her belongings," He carefully lifted her right hand where a small symbol was etched into the skin on her palm. "She is no ninja."

"You might be right, the same symbol on her palm is here on this book," Kankuro said holding the book he had removed from her bag. "However the inside is blank."

"That's odd," Temari said. Her right hand resting on her face to cradle her cheek and chin, with her left arm folded across her body. "Why carry around a blank book?"

"Possibly to write in?" Kankuro suggested.

"Or it may be a defense tactic," Gaara said. He could feel the same power within the book that was stirring inside the woman pretending to sleep. As he said it he felt the energy stir and he knew he was right.

"A defense tactic? But it's a book!" Temari countered.

"I can feel power from it, it isn't quite the same as the chakra building within her, but they are connected," Gaara explained.

Avery stayed still as she listened to her visitors. She could tell that Gaara, whoever he was, had more sense abilities than his male and female companions, as they had not picked up on the book having power. She thought it a miracle that he didn't know she was awake.

"Yes, but even if they are connected, who has ever heard of a book defending itself? And that only begs the question: what is she, or the book, hiding?" Temari pressed.

"You may be over thinking this a little, Temari." Kankuro said, clearly unconcerned so far with what they had learned but not so much so that he wasn't still wary.

"We should let her rest, she's not awake yet. We'll check in her again tomorrow." Gaara decided walking across the room to the door.

"But she has already been out for three days." Temari protested as she and Kankuro left the room. They didn't wait for Gaara knowing he would be behind them as Kankuro was saying something about extreme fatigue.

Gaara waited in the doorway until he was sure no one would hear. "That was for your benefit that I didn't tell them. Maybe you'll feel more apt to conversation in the morning," He said before shutting the door and following his siblings.

Avery froze for an instant; he _did_ know she was awake. She waited until she couldn't hear their footsteps anymore before she opened her eyes. The only light in the room now was the light from the window. Looking around told her she was the only resident of the small hospital room they had her in. _Three days? That doesn't seem possible!_ She thought as she tried to sit up. Her body didn't seem to want to move let alone hold itself up. She reached her right hand out, "book," she said softly.

The book in her bag was surrounded then in blue and white lights, disappearing from where it was only to reappear on the bed by her side. Her fingers gently brushed the symbol on the front, her family crest, before she opened it to reveal its pages were filled with words and illustrations including her family's lineage. Using what little energy she had stored she held her hand over the open book and flipped through the pages, trying to find anything possible about ninjas, but it was as she suspected. There was nothing in the book. She closed the book and using her eyes managed to place it back at the foot of her bed and tried once again to move, taking the IV out of her arm. However as soon as she sat up the room spun and she once again fell back into sleep.

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"We don't know when she woke, when we came to check on her a few hours after you left, we noticed her IV had come out and she was in a different position."

Gaara, Temari and Kankuro walked back into the room their visiting traveler was resting in. She was indeed in a different position than they had left her in and the nurse had replaced her IV.

Gaara was enraged.

"I thought I ordered hourly checks. Has anyone spoken to her yet!?" He bellowed as he looked around at the staff standing around them.

"No, My Lord, she has been asleep since we checked. I had appointed one of our newer trainees to perform her checks; she might not have checked very thoroughly." One of them said nervously.

"Please see to it that your trainees are doing their jobs properly." Temari commanded of the nurse before sending her away with anger and embarrassment stained on her cheeks.

The sound of voices woke Avery from her sleep. She stirred slightly and decided it might be time to wake up after all. She opened her eyes and blinked a few times, adjusting to the light that was now on inside the room before she tried, with more success, to sit up. Her eyes found the source of the voices standing by the door.

When her eyes fell on the three people standing before her, she was surprised momentarily by their appearance. They were dressed differently from what she was used to seeing (that was for sure). The first that she registered was one of the two men. He was a little taller than her, and dressed completely in black. She wasn't sure quite what to call his outfit, but the pants reminded her somewhat of capri-style yoga pants.

She made a face, and then continued looking upward. His shirt was also strange. It seemed to flow almost like a short skirt over the top of his pants and to around mid-thigh, with a slim rope belt that seemed to be devised to hold the shirt in place. Lastly, she noted the black hood on his head that had what she could only describe as two conical cat ears on top. From the side of his face that she could see, she also noticed the streaks of purple paint smeared on his pale skin. She wasn't sure what they were for or what they meant, but she assumed they were there for something.

Or he just liked to paint up his face like a hooker...

The next person was the only woman out of the group and she was the only one whose face she could see straight on. She was about the same height as Avery, wearing a black, short sleeved kimono with a red sash holding it closed at her waist. She wore fishnets on her legs and fingerless black gloves on her hands. Her blonde hair was split into four short ponytails, two high, and two low, with her bangs falling over a headband with a stout lowercase I looking symbol on the metal plate that sat on her forehead.

From the way she spoke, Avery had gotten a feel for the woman's blunt personality, but, from the look of disdain on her face, it was blatantly clear that Avery wasn't far off.

Finally, her eyes came across the second man and the last of the three voices interrupting her rest. He was about the same height as Temari, with short red hair. She could only see the left side of his face, but from what she could see, he had a red symbol of something on his forehead like a tattoo, and black markings around his eyes. He wore a red armored robe with a metal vest and a couple belts sitting across his waist and hips. There was also a large gourd strapped to his back with black markings on it and a cap. He stood with his arms crossed across his chest while the others had their arms at their sides.

It didn't take them long to notice she was awake, especially since Temari was facing her. Temari's eyes widened, alerting the men to look toward her to see she was struggling to sit up. The two men turned to face her; Gaara was the first to speak.

"You're awake."

Upon being able to see the two men's full faces, Avery noticed that Kankuro's strange hood also had the metal plate that Temari's headband had. Gaara did not seem to have one but the red tattoo was the kanji symbol for love and the black markings around his eyes went all the way around making his aqua eyes seem like they glowed.

He looked like he needed a good night's sleep something fierce.

As Gaara began to walk over to Avery's bed, Temari reached out to him. "Don't approach her too fast; we don't want to startle her."

Uncertainty ran through Avery's bones and nerves like crazy. She had no idea if she could trust these three people. Even after just the few extra hours of sleep she felt a little stronger, still not sure she would make it through a fight of three on one. _If I can just get a hand on my book…_ she thought; but then her stomach decided that its need was greater than escape and gurgled so loud that Kankuro started to laugh.

"Ugh," Avery groaned.

"Let me go see what the nurses have set for you to eat." Kankuro said, excusing himself, fits of laughter still rolling out from his body.

Temari stepped forward cautiously, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm just hungry." Avery replied, now holding her stomach as it made another gurgling sound. The two walked toward her slowly until they were standing next to her.

"What is your name?" Gaara asked.

Still feeling uncertain of whether or not she could trust these people, Avery did not answer right away. _They did save my life_ , she thought weighing her options. She knew full well they could have left her there to die and she wasn't tied down or anything. She had all her things. They were showing that they were trusting so she figured she should be as well. With a sigh, she looked at Gaara. Looking into his face, she didn't know why but she felt like she could trust him.

"My name is Avery. Avery Moran."

"Hello Avery, my name is Gaara; I am the Kazekage of the Village Hidden in the Sand." His voice was raspy and rough, like he swallowed too much sand or something.

"I am Temari, Gaara's older sister. The other man is Kankuro, our brother." Temari continued the introduction with a stable but cautious tone, not exactly welcoming.

Avery nodded slowly, taking in the information. "What's Kazekage?"

Temari and Gaara paused to look at each other. Gaara did not seem as surprised about what Avery said as Temari did, but he had also suspected she was not of this world.

"What village are you from?" Temari asked, avoiding Avery's question.

"I'm…not really from around here," Avery admitted. "I'm honestly not even sure where I am." She said as she glanced around herself.

"This is the village known as Sunagakure, or the Village Hidden in the Sand," Gaara explained. "I am the Kazekage; I'm the village's source of leadership and government under our land's Feudal Lord."

 _He is awfully young to be a leader_.

"Where are you from then?" Temari asked.

"I am from fairly far away, I had to escape and I just kind of went wherever I could. I used the last of my strength to get here, knowing it would be far enough that I would go undetected." She explained slowly.

"What happened?"

"The man that had been trying to earn my affections, also happened to be the son of a close family friend, betrayed me and slaughtered my entire clan," Avery explained with a pained expression. She looked down at the fading marking of her family on her palm. It was the last time, at least for a long time, that the crest would appear there.

After a few moments of silence, Temari seemed to have noticed Avery was staring at her hand. "What's that symbol on your hand?"

"It's my family crest. It would always appear on our hands if someone in the clan was in danger, alerting us to come and help."

"It's also on the book in your bag," Gaara commented.

"Yes, it has been passed down through many generations. This is what Markus was after I am sure of it. So I grabbed it and fled because I knew I wasn't going to be able to beat him in the condition I was in." Avery explained. She motioned for Gaara to hand her the bag and when he did, she pulled the book into her lap and opened it to reveal its contents to them.

"Amazing! Gaara, you were right." Temari was unable to hide the surprised awe in her voice upon seeing that the book, was indeed, protecting itself.

"He was? That's new," Kankuro teased coming back with a bowl. "Sorry the nurses said you can only have broth until for right now. They want to see how your body handles this after not eating for nearly four days."

"Anything is better than nothing," Avery said taking the bowl carefully in her hands. "Thank you."

"So what are you then, some sort of powerful being?" Gaara asked quietly.

"Sort of, I am a witch," She explained, "I have special abilities we call powers. I am not here to harm anyone, as I assume that is what you're all worried about, I just needed a place to rest."

Immediately she saw a shared glance between the other two. It was curious, and a bit amusing, to see them both dart behind their younger brother in an instant.

Behind him, the two of them shared what could only be described as a crinkly eyed look of complete doubt. A witch? Really?! That was the story that she was going to go with? The two of them had heard better cover stories out of spies caught in Gaara's sand outside the borders begging for their lives.

"I think she may have knocked some brain cells loose…" Kankuro whispered behind the gourd. Temari gave a short sigh and nodded in return.

"I can't believe Gaara is actually buying this. I mean… come on… witches? That's like something that a teenager would write into some storyline they just made up to amuse themselves in their spare time…" She said as she put her hand to her forehead to cover her eyes in exasperation.

Avery watched as Gaara's expression changed in an instant, and his eyes seemed to drift to the corners to look behind him. He could hear them where she couldn't, and clearly he wasn't pleased with what he was hearing from his siblings. Ever so slightly she watched as his head turned until he was looking over his shoulder at his brother.

When it grew quiet, Kankuro felt a chill run up his spine. His eyes drifted up from his sister, and he stiffened when he saw his brother's black rimmed eye narrowed down at him. He felt as though his heart had dropped from his throat and into his stomach in an instant, and couldn't help standing back up as quickly as he could with one hand behind his head and a pretty pathetic smile on his face to try and cover for himself.

"Enough…" Was all Gaara said, then glanced to his sister who had straightened as well with a decidedly bored look on her face as she crossed her arms over her chest where they had been before. Gaara relaxed, and refocused on Avery before he took the book from her lap and set it aside.

"Well, when you're feeling better, we will get you out of here; and help find you somewhere to live while you're here in Suna."

Avery smiled and took a sip of her broth, "Thank you."


	2. Chapter 2

I do not own Naruto

I am hopeful for this fic. I KNOW it's starting slow, hang with me guys it gets better

 _Chapter Two_

Over the next few weeks, Avery's relationship with the sand siblings strengthened considerably. She had only spent one more day in the hospital before she began begging Gaara to get her out of there; her hatred for hospitals was no different in this village than it was at home. She really liked the village; Gaara had shown her around personally after she was stable enough to walk for that long.

A lot of Avery's time was spent with Kankuro, Temari, and Gaara; more so the latter two than the first, she just couldn't get passed the face paint some days. The more time she spent with them, the more connected she felt with them. She would often go help Temari with new trainees, or just hang out with Gaara in his office.

Gaara did not mind the intrusion in his silence, mostly because he found Avery amusing. She would sit sideways in the armchair he had across his desk; her legs dangling over the arm, often complaining about the heat. She used some interesting expressions when she spoke, sometimes referencing some person named Satan and his "ball sack" as she so delicately put it.

Today was no different; Avery was lying in her usual armchair, legs over the side, wearing shorts just long enough to cover the essential areas. "I don't know that I'm cut out for desert living," she said dramatically. "Temari is supposed to be coming to retrieve me when she is ready for me to come help her with the new Chunin training regimen, but I might have to tell her it's just too hot!"

"You say that every day, yet here you are," Gaara chuckled, not looking up from his work. He found her complaining mildly amusing.

"I don't really know where I would go," She said, "Besides, everyone in this village has been so nice."

"There are other villages with other pleasant people." Gaara replied with a chuckle.

Avery sat up in her chair, facing Gaara with a pout on her full lips. "Are you trying to get rid of me, Kazekage- _Butt_?"

"Of course not, _idiot_." Gaara said rolling his eyes. "I just understand that you are uncomfortable in this heat. I know there are other places that you would be more comfortable in and therefore happier long term."

"How heroic of you." She teased him sarcastically. She stood and walked over to kiss Gaara's cheek. She gave him a pat on the head and said, "Well I'm gonna go meet Temari now."

Shock ran through Gaara's entire body when she kissed his cheek. No one had ever done something like that to him. But as she skipped out of the room, he couldn't help the eye roll that happened before he went back to his work.

He did like Avery, and he knew she liked him, though he wasn't sure it was romantic on either side. He enjoyed her company and presence more than most people. It would be a sad day when she decided it was time to leave. It wasn't very often that he came across another person that he could actually tolerate for more than a few seconds without wanting to throttle.

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Avery met up with Temari outside the training building. Together, they worked on the set up for the new training they had for the newly appointed ninjas and spent the afternoon helping them through it. Avery had picked up on their ways of fighting and training quickly. She also knew that this was just a basic class of need to know mission tactics. Every ninja had their own skills and "jutsu" they called it, that they harnessed and practiced on their own time.

Temari and Avery were cleaning up the training class after all the Chunin had left. Temari turned, "So, are you really going to leave the village?"

"How on earth do you know about that?" Avery asked, throwing a mat back into the pile they were making of them in the corner of the training house.

"Gaara told me," She admitted. "He said you aren't able to handle the heat." She was sitting on the ground finishing the chart of the new Chunin and which were ready for their new teams and what rank mission. "I think he likes you."

"I think he's confused."

"What? What do you mean?"

"Don't worry about it. He'll figure it out in his own time," Avery said chuckling.

Temari watched her friend carefully, "Do you not like him?"

"I didn't say that. I adore him, but not romantically," She replied with a smile. "I did kiss his cheek before coming over and I think that confused him."

Temari laughed at that.

"You're going to be our friend no matter if you stay or go," She said as she stood. She put her arm around my shoulder and hugged me as we walked out of the training building.

"Thanks Temari." Avery said with a smile. Temari's opinion of Avery had changed a lot in the weeks she had been out of the hospital. Especially after seeing some of the things Avery could do, she took her doubt about what she was back with a laugh and they had been buddies ever since.

The next week went by really quickly. Avery loved Suna, but the more she was there the more she felt like it was time to go. The day came when she made her decision; she walked into Gaara's office and plopped down into her normal chair. She watched him then, waiting for him to acknowledge her arrival.

"Yes?" Gaara said without looking up.

"It's time; I've made my decision." She said simply.

Gaara set his pen down and sat back in his chair, looking up to meet her gaze, "I see."

"It's nothing against the village, I love Suna. I just have this feeling I am supposed to be somewhere else," she explained, "Plus, it's hot."

Gaara smiled, "I am not upset." He stood and walked around the desk to where his friend sat. "You are not tied down to any village; you can go anywhere you want."

Avery returned his smile with one of her own. "Is there anywhere I shouldn't go?" She asked curiously, wondering what was beyond this village. She was sure that it wasn't all gummy bears and rainbows out there; better know what to be prepared for.

Gaara thought for a moment before giving his answer. "There are more places you shouldn't go than should. At least if you want to use Suna as a reference." He leaned against his desk, "We can point you in the right direction and make sure you know where to avoid before you leave. There are some places and villages out in the world that would not give you such a warm welcome upon mentioning me or my village."

"Alliances and all that mess?" She clarified.

"Yes, that is an accurate statement," He said, "I knew this was coming; but it does not mean I want you to leave."

"I know, but it's time."

"When?"

"I'm moving out tomorrow."

"Alright."

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That night, Avery and the three sand siblings all went out for dinner. When they got back home, they say up late into the night talking. They took the time to tell Avery about where she should avoid in her travels and where would be safe for her to aim for. When the four could no longer keep their heads up, they went to bed.

Avery woke up first the next morning. She took that time to pack her things and then waited for the other three to wake. Gaara was the first to wake. He came down to see Avery sitting at the table, studying the map they had made for her.

"You know you don't have to leave just yet," He said.

"I do though; I am sure there are a ton of other people out there for me to bother." She said smiling at him over her coffee.

He rolled his eyes at her and sat down with her waiting for his siblings to wake.

Once everyone had woken and dressed, they walked out to the entrance to the village. Avery stepped into the tunnel that lead out into the dry dessert that was almost the end of her just over a month ago. She paused to turn to say goodbye to her new friends. "You know this probably isn't the last time we'll see each other."

Temari made a sound of disapproval, "it better not be or I'll come find you and kick your ass."

"Yes ma'am," Avery chuckled.

Gaara stepped forward and held something out to her. She took it and studied the object, noting that it was a weird knife looking thing the ninja called kunai. The handle had a very intricate pattern on it with a clean sharp blade.

"This is one of my special kunai; I want you to take it with you."

She looked over the kunai blade carefully, noting what made it special. "This is personalized for you," She said. One side of the handle had the kanji symbol for love was etched into it, while the other side had the Kazekage symbol.

"It's from a set that Temari and Kankuro both had made for me when I became Kazekage," Gaara explained. "I still have the other three."

"Why?"

"Because you are special; I can feel it," Gaara said with a smile.

Avery returned his smile and placed his kunai into the pack on her waist that Temari had given her the night before, preparing her for her travels. It had other kunai and shuriken in it as well that they had given her. She then stepped forward and hugged Gaara, "Thank you, for everything."

He returned the hug with a tear in his eye, "You'll always have a home here."

Avery nodded as she stepped back, wiping her own tears away.

"We sent word to Konoha that you're around. We figured as long as you stay within the Land of Fire, you'll probably end up there at some point." Kankuro said.

"I really do appreciate everything you guys have done for me. Thank you so much for looking out for me."

After one last hug for each of her friends, Avery turned to the world she would be traveling through. Before she was completely out of ear shot, she heard something that made her turn.

"Good luck, Avery!"

A huge smiled spread across her lips and she waved back at them before turning away for the last time to enter her new adventure.

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The next two days Avery traveled quickly; mostly keeping to herself. Anytime she came across other people she masked her presence and purposefully avoided them. Her newly restored strength after resting in the sand village for so long made walking through the desert easier than she recalled, even with the heat. Not feeling the need to stop in any towns yet, she continued passed them without worry.

She rejoiced when she found the end of the desert and there was green. She took in all the smells of grass and trees and rejoiced in the comfort of shade when she found she wanted to sit and take a break from walking. She also found she needed to drink less water as she was walking through the green land of what she assumed was the Land of Fire from the map Gaara had given her.

It was while she was walking down a particularly shady and beautiful path that she first felt it; the pull of someone's emotions tugging at Avery's body as she sat beneath the tree.

One of the most suppressed abilities Avery had at her disposal was her Empathic power; the ability to feel what others around her were feeling. She was the only person she had ever heard of in existence though that was born with the power. Since she was, she had a lot more time than anyone else ever had to develop it; which allowed her to learn to turn it off and on at will. The only time an emotion would ever overpower her control on it is if the emotion was strong enough to pull her into it; overpowering her senses.

She grabbed her things and walked toward the pull she felt. Feeling it stronger only made her feet move faster; dragging her toward whoever was letting out this dangerously strong emotion.

Once she felt it so strong that made her blood sting as it pumped her heart so hard she could feel it in her ears, she knelt in a bush to see what was happening.

The scene in front of her was truly terrible. Six people in total, all male; two of the men were in long black cloaks with red clouds on them. The closer of the two to her had two of the other males by the throat; his arms were broken apart with strange hair-like cords attaching each piece. Avery had to cover her mouth to keep the sound of disgust in.

He had glowing green eyes surrounded by a red sclera, and a mask that covered his mouth and nose. His headwear was like a hood with one of those metal plates on the front; but this one had a different symbol than those of the sand. Two lines striking down like odd lightning bolts, equal distance apart, with a slash through the middle.

The other of the two men in black was a ways away from where Avery hid, with one of the other men kneeling in front of him in what looked like a very intense pain. He was completely black save for the white patches that she could see on his upper and lower arm as well as his hand in the form of what looked like bones; with grey hair slicked back and a long scythe type weapon with three blood red blades.

The other four men were all in about the same clothing; dark blue long sleeved shirts and black, loose fitting pants. Some had ninja packs like her and some had bandaging or some holsters attached to them. They all wore green vests, almost identical except one was a slightly different shade than the others, with red spiral symbols on the back. The two in the grips of the creepy man were not of Avery's focus. Avery's focus was on the other two.

The man kneeling in pain needed serious help.

He was suffering from internal bleeding and some sort of shock. He seemed to have attained his injuries in an unconventional way that Avery was unable to figure out as of yet.

The other man was kneeling a ways behind the grey haired man and his prey. He seemed to be alright physically other than maybe severe exhaustion. His hair in a tightly pulled back ponytail that spiked up and his features were very pointed.

He was the source of the emotions that had been calling to her.

Avery watched carefully at the scene unfolding in front of her. It was just as the black man raised his hand with another long pointed weapon she hadn't seen at first that the boy who had called to her lurched forward.

"ASUMA!" He called out frantically.

With a surge of desperation and despair that clouded every part of Avery's body, she lurched forward and threw her hand out; causing the weapon that had been in the man's hand to go flying away.

"What the-"

With another wave of her arm, she sent the man flying onto the steps of the building they were fighting in front of; landing hard with an audible crack of his head. She ignored the other man with his creepy arms and ran straight for the injured one. She grabbed his arm and immediately orbed; surrounding them in blue and white iridescent lights before they vanished; reappearing on the roof of the building. She knelt and placed her hands on his chest, after forcing him to lay back.

She looked back down at the scene below. The black man, she realized, had a skeleton pattern on the front of his body that she watched vanish into a normal looking human. He had pink colored eyes and a rude smile playing on his lips. The headband that a ninja wore placed around his neck; with three slash marks on it and once again a line through the middle. He jumped up to where they were, landing in front of her as more ninja in green showed up for backup.

She threw her hand out and blasted the enemy ninja away, knocking him to the opposite side of the roof. She called all her energy into her hands; a warm gold light appeared between her and the injured man she was bound and determined to save; the other man's emotions still rushing through her. When she had healed him enough for him to survive, she stood to take on the enemy, but they had been called away by someone that was not there; but from the way they spoke, must have been their leader.

Knowing the other ninja would be coming up to make sure their comrade was okay, Avery knew she needed to run. She stood and made sure she still had all her things on her back and began to run away. She felt she had healed the man enough for them to get him to safety, but she wasn't sure why she still felt so strongly about it; those initial emotions were gone, not a tremor left in her body.

Once Avery felt she had gone far enough, she stopped to catch her breath. She knew they weren't following her, but the one with the ponytail, the one whose emotions had broken through her steel grip of control, was running forward.

"Please wait!" He called out.

It was obvious he wasn't sure where she had gone; she was safe for now. The ninja in green would not be following her. But that didn't mean that the spiky ponytail boy, who looked around Gaara's age, was going to be out of her mind; not for a while. As soon as she caught her breath, she kept walking away from the scene she left behind her, never looking back.

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The next three days went smoothly for Avery's travels. After taking inventory of the supplies she packed when she left from the sand village, she decided it might be time to stop in a town. She searched for a civilian town that was marked on the map that she wouldn't stand out too much in. She changed into an outfit Temari had given her, a purple kimono short sleeved kimono and a black sash, figuring it might make her blend in a little more than the dark blue jeans and grey t-shirt she had been wearing they day she made the decision to go to the town.

Walking into town she already had a plan in mind. She needed to get cleaned up so the first place she went was the towns hot springs. Body image had never been an issue for Avery so she was not shy about getting naked around a bunch of other females. Her soak was exactly what her muscles needed; even though her travels had been fairly easy after her rest in Suna, her muscles were still had a slight ache to them.

After her soak, she wandered town to stock up on supplies. She passed by a few shops with some food items she could take on the road as well as some clothing shops. She didn't actually buy much, but it was nice to at least look around. After getting a quick bite to eat, she decided that it was time to go. The kimono wasn't exactly something she felt she would be comfortable for traveling in; so she changed back into her grey t-shirt, jeans, and converse that she had originally put on that morning when she woke up.

The sun was overhead as she left the village, marking it was around noon or maybe a little later. After eating in town, she shouldn't need to stop for a while, so she tightened her backpack straps and kept walking in the direction she had been going when she decided to stop. The sun wasn't unbearable here like it was in the desert; just a nice brightness to see with a cool wind accompanying it.

She had been walking for probably another hour before she felt the same emotional pull that had disrupted her the other day. She decided she would try to ignore it this time, not wanting to get caught; but it was so strong it seemed impossible. It was as if the emotions of that young man were calling to her somehow. She was walking in the direction she could feel the pull coming from before she realized she had made the decision to follow it. As soon as she was within range to sense that he was with five other people, she masked her presence and got up as close as she could to watch what was going on.

She recognized the same two men in the black cloaks with red clouds on them right away. One of them was hurt as another man had his arm through his chest where his heart would be; his fist emitting lightning.

 _Wow, that's impressive._

Recalling what she had learned about the ninjas and how their jutsu worked, she realized that the lightning was probably some form of the man's chakra built up in his hand. Different people had different abilities and strengths she knew; each person's chakra working in a different way depending on their capabilities and fighting style.

The man with his arm through the other had silver hair, and a headband with the same kind of metal plate, but she couldn't see what the symbol was. It was even over his brow and she could see that his left eye had a large scar straight down through it. The eye was red while the other could have been a dark grey color. He had a mask over the rest of his face, covering his nose and mouth. The clothes he wore were the same as the other ninja in green the other day had been wearing. Additionally he wore fingerless gloves and had the sleeves of his shirt rolled to his mid forearm.

Avery glanced at the others; passing over the other man in black, and the boy she was so drawn to. There were two more people there with them. The first was a woman with a long blonde ponytail with a chunk of hair that hung over the left side of her face. She had large teal eyes, pale skin that went with the blonde-haired-blue-eye thing she had going for her. She was just an inch or two shorter than Avery, wearing a purple halter top and skirt set with mesh shorts underneath, and mesh pads at her knees and elbows.

The second was a man with long light brunette hair and a red headband. He was large both in height and weight, definitely taller than Avery and about four times her width (but she was tiny). He wore a long red shirt that was flowing like Kankuro's down his mid thigh. Instead of the belt Kankuro wore, this man had metal plating over his chest, upper arms and wrists like armor. His pants were the common black pants she had seen a lot of these ninja men wear and he wore the same sandals most everyone wore.

Avery watched as the battle progressed. The enemy that should have been dead had four large beings made out of that hair-cord stuff that he shot from his arms all come out of his body. They stood with different masks, one broken, behind him. The one that had the broken mask crumpled to the ground within seconds of being independent from the host body though; she wondered if the masked man had killed that one when he ran his arm through him.

It was really incredible to watch. The other monsters began fighting of their own accord; making it difficult for the masked man to keep up. The two other new people to the situation didn't seem to be able to lend much to the masked man's attempts to win this fight. The man Avery had been so drawn to was eventually able to lead the one with the huge scythe away with some kind of shadow jutsu from the look of it.

Knowing Avery would want to watch both fights; she closed her eyes, making an astral projection of herself that could follow the two that split off and watch them. As soon as she released the power, she would know everything her copy saw. The astral Avery ran off after the two men as soon as she formed. She watched as the man she was drawn to tricked his enemy into killing his partner with the jutsu that almost killed the other man she saved; or hoped she had saved. She wasn't sure she had with them being out here getting revenge.

However, when the creepy one died, one of the big black monsters went into his body and allowed him to live again. _What the hell is this guy?_ Avery was watching, not realizing she was holding her breath, as the fight continued. She was starting to wonder if she should step in, at least to the fight with the creepy one, when backup came.

Four more ninja showed up. The first one Avery noticed was once again wearing the same dark blue undershirt with black pants and green vest. He had a metal face guard and his neck and chin were covered with cloth from his undershirt. He also had messy brown hair and large dark brown eyes.

The next was an extremely pale boy with black hair and a couple inches taller than Avery. His clothes were different; black capri-style pants with a holster around his right thigh. His shirt was grey with a black, short sleeved jacket. The shirt and jacket were both so short in length that his entire mid section showed. He had a small backpack with red straps on his back and a headband on his forehead, but she couldn't see the symbol.

The next was the only female that joined. She was very thin with pink hair and a darker pink headband that she wore in her hair instead of on her forehead. She wore a dark pink vest with a lighter pink skirt and black shorts. She also had a holster on her right thigh, as well as pink pads on her elbows and black gloves on her hands. She wore knee high boots with a low heel and exposed toe; even with the small heel she was still shorter than Avery by a couple inches.

The last was a blonde boy with a black headband on his forehead and a large personality; Avery could tell just from sensing him. He wore a black and orange jacket with orange pants; also with a holster around his right thigh, but lower than his companions. He had black sandals on his feet and was around the same height as Avery. He hadn't even done anything yet and Avery was already shivering with anticipation.

As soon as the newcomers arrived, the silver haired man sent two of them after the other man; they called him Shikamaru. Avery could have told them that by now he did not need help, but that would blow her cover. Instead she watched the scene unfold in front of her. The blonde boy apparently had a new move he had been practicing and he was just on the cusp of mastering it.

The first time he attempted his new move though, he failed and the brunette man and the silver head had to jump in and bring him back so he could try again. The brunette man seemed to be able to create wood as it came straight out of his arm; which Avery couldn't decide if that was awesome, or a little creepy. The enemy seemed to realize that whatever it was that was his new jutsu was going to be trouble because he upped his defenses, becoming even creepier. He took the two monsters that were left into his body; the black cords breaking his body apart and creating a mass of him that had the two other masks facing the same way he was so they could still spit out the fire and wind they had been.

The blonde got ready to try again. He crossed his fingers and made four clones of himself that were going to help him achieve his jutsu. The thing he made in his hand was a small blue ball that sounded like wind whipping through a tunnel in his hand. It was incredible. He launched into his attack, throwing himself and his clones at the enemy, one staying behind with the assumption that it was the real one. Avery could see that it wasn't though and watched for what this enemy would do.

The enemy attacked, avoiding the clones completely and going for the one he assumed was the real one. He got him and it looked like the blonde boy was really dead, until he revealed it was another clone and he hit the enemy full on with his whirring jutsu. The jutsu ball broke apart into millions of pieces, almost like needles attacking his body over and over. Avery couldn't keep up with everything it was doing.

After the jutsu finished, the blonde was on the ground, breathing hard. That move had obviously taken a lot of strength and chakra to pull off. Everyone looked absolutely amazed at seeing this new move in action.

They finished up and were preparing to move out, taking the dead enemy along with them to be analyzed at their village. The others rejoined them; Avery had already pulled her astral projection in and was just waiting for them to clear out before she tried to leave. But just when she thought they were about to leave she heard one of them speak the words she did not want to hear.

"Someone is watching us."

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

*uh oh you guys she got caught! Whats gonna haaaappen?


	3. Chapter 3

_Chapter Three_

So….I realized that I named this fic on a whim and I'm not sure I like it so it might change at some point. IDK though…

Also, I never know what to say in author notes….i mean I could gush over my favorite characters? But I feel like that will happen a lot more later when I get to the actual romantic relationship parts as the beginning is a lot more adventure.

This is my first fic after all…hang in there guys *sweatdrop*  
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It had been the blonde in the purple that realized Avery was there in the brush watching. She turned and faced the exact spot where Avery had been sitting the entire battle; but she was no longer distracted by the danger of an enemy and could clearly feel the presence that Avery was still suppressing. She must be some kind of sensory type of ninja.

Panic flooded through Avery, making her blood boil as she considered her options. She really didn't have many; stay here and get caught, or run. Those were her options. After a second of thought, she came to the conclusion that running sounded like the better option. She immediately stood and took off running away from the large group of ninja. Of course they were pursuing her and she knew that it was going to take a lot to get away from this one.

She kept pushing herself forward, flying through the trees when suddenly she came to an abrupt halt. She couldn't move anything, not her head, not her hands, she could barely blink. She managed to glance down out of her peripheral vision and realized that the man she had been so incredibly drawn to had trapped her in his shadow, causing her to have to mimic his moves.

His first mistake was having her face him; Avery knew all she needed was her eyes to get out of this. She waited until he had to listen to his leaders for instruction before she squinted her eyes slightly and sent Shikamaru flying away from his stance and breaking his shadows hold on her. She ran immediately, trying to get as far away from getting caught in another shadow as possible.

"Wood style: wood dome jutsu!"

Without any further warning, wood started sprouting up from the ground in a dome over Avery's body. She quickly blew up the farther side from where the ninja were and darted through the opening she made in the brunette man's wooden prison.

"Damn, she's fast."

"She may be fast, but she won't get away from Kakashi."

Before Avery even had time to wonder why she wouldn't get away from Kakashi, whatever that was, the silver haired man appeared in front of her. Avery prepared to fight him but he attacked and she jumped back; right into the shadow user again. _Damn it, I won't get away from him a second time._

Shikamaru didn't make her face him this time, knowing he would just get thrown again. Especially since he was not sure how she did it in the first place, he wasn't willing to give her any chance to do it again. Everyone surrounded around the new intruder, including the giant bird Sai had drawn to transport Kakuzu back to the Hidden Leaf.

"Who are you?" Yamato asked their captive.

She said nothing, just standing there, still as a statue in Shikamaru's shadow. When she didn't respond, the medical ninja side of Sakura spoke up, "are you alright? You're not hurt are you?"

"No response," Sai commented. "Maybe she doesn't know how to speak."

"I doubt that Sai."

Avery rolled her eyes at their conversation. She was not about to out herself before she was ready.

"So what do we do?" Shikamaru asked. He could feel his grip slipping after already having used so much chakra in the fight.

"I guess we take her back to the leaf village with us," Yamato said approaching her cautiously.

 _The leaf village… Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro… the leaf village was where I was supposed to be going._

"Couldn't we just let her go? I mean she hasn't actually done anything to us," Naruto said, his exhaustion showing in his voice. He was holding his right arm close to his side, it was probably injured.

"No, technically she hasn't done anything. But with the Akatsuki wandering around, I am not really willing to just let her go. She could be a spy for them," Kakashi said.

They were all silent then as they contemplated their options. Avery thought now might be the time to speak up if she wanted to see if she could clear herself and find the hidden leaf village.

"Did you say the hidden leaf?"

Everyone stared at her, like she had six heads or something. Finally the blonde spoke up.

"Yes, that's where we are all from," He said pointing at his forehead with his thumb. That was when it occurred to Avery she had not taken a good look at their headbands since she was so close to them now. Their headbands all had a small, spiral leaf symbol on them.

"That is actually where I was heading in my travels," Avery admitted. "Or I was trying to anyway."

"You were 'trying?'"

"I…uh kinda got a little lost," Avery admitted. "I am pretty sure I left the map my friend gave me at the hot spring in that town I was just in."

"Well," The silver haired man spoke, "we are about to head back if you'd like to come along."

Avery looked around at everyone's faces. She realized as she looked at Shikamaru that he wasn't holding her anymore. It was when she looked him in the eye that she realized the question that was lingering on her tongue. "Is your captain…did he survive?" She asked.

Shock crossed is face for an instant before his expression relaxed as he searched her face. "Yes, thanks to you. I knew I recognized you."

"Good."

"Well," the silver haired man said, breaking the connection between the two. "I guess we should all introduce ourselves. You can come back to the village with us and speak with our Hokage. I am Kakashi."

"Yamato." The brunette with the metal face plate.

"Sai." The pale boy with the exposed midriff.

"Sakura." The pink haired girl.

"Naruto." The interesting blonde boy.

"Ino." The blonde woman in the purple.

"Choji." The large boy with the long light brown hair.

"Shikamaru." The shadow boy, she already knew that one from listening earlier.

With a nod, Avery smiled at them, "My name is Avery."

Kakashi nodded. He seemed gentler now; the crinkle in the corners of his eyes proof of the smile his mask was hiding. "Alright, Avery, let's go."

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Since the group wasn't in any rush to get back to the village, they were able to walk at a decent pace rather than having to run. Avery was glad to not have to run since she wasn't entirely sure she'd be able to keep up with them. She knew at some point she would probably have to try; but maybe she'd practice a bit first.

It wasn't long before she could see a large wall, with a gate. Just inside the gate, she could see a lovely village with beautifully structured buildings and many people. She stepped closer to Shikamaru, "is that it?"

"Yes, that's the Village Hidden in the Leaves. Or it's also known as Konohagakure."

This village was even cuter than Suna; though Avery did miss it a little. The buildings were smaller than the sand buildings and made up of a different material. There was more color and everything was really open with trees between buildings. Everything was so green and healthy looking. Children ran around playing and people trying to do their errands. Cheerful, that was the word; the village had an extremely cheerful feeling to it.

It seemed like this village had a lot more people than Suna, and at first it made an uneasy feeling go through Avery. It wasn't until Shikamaru touched her shoulder that she realized she wasn't paying attention to where the group was going. "This way," Shikamaru said with a smile.

She returned the smile and walked with the group toward a large red building with a red circle at the top on the front with a symbol in it that Avery didn't recognize. There were metal pillars on top that curved in toward the middle slightly. Directly behind that there was a giant cliff with great stone faces carved into it. There were five, four men and one woman.

"Where are we going?" Avery asked.

"The Hokage's office, she's the leader of the village. She works along with the Feudal Lord of the Land of Fire and the village elders to keep the village safe. She is also the one that accepts and assigns our missions," Shikamaru explained. "Since we just got back from a mission, we have to check in with her and give her our report."

"She also needs to know of our new visitor," Yamato said softly over his shoulder. He seemed very soft spoken, and she got the feeling that he didn't trust her quite yet.

 _This woman must be leaf's version of what Gaara is. I wonder if she's older._ Avery thought as they stepped inside the building and began up the stairs to the third floor of the building. The group stopped in front of a door, likely to the Hokage's office, and Kakashi rapped three short knocks.

"Come in."

The group stepped into a large, circular office and they all spread out so she could see them all. The Hokage was the only person in the room; sitting behind a desk in a large chair. She had long blonde hair she kept in loose pigtails down her back and long bangs hanging at each side of her face. Her skin was fair and pale with a small purple diamond shape in the center of her forehead. She had butterscotch brown eyes that looked rather intense and even though she seemed to look fairly young, Avery got the feeling she was older than she appeared. She wore a grey open shirt with a dark grey sash tying it closed just under her enormous breasts. Avery couldn't see past that but she did see a green jacket hanging on her chair.

"Well?" she asked simply of her ninja.

"Both Akatsuki members have been eliminated," Yamato reported formally.

"One was eliminated using Naruto's new jutsu. We brought his body back to be analyzed. Sai took it to the research division," Kakashi said.

It was at that moment Avery realized Sai was missing. It must have been his jutsu that created the massive odd looking bird that carried the enemy's body back.

"Very good, you have all done well. You all need to take the next two days off and rest. Any of you with injuries report to the hospital at once," she said sternly. "Naruto, that arm looks pretty rough, I want it examined immediately."

"Nah, don't worry about me grandma Tsunade. I'm totally-"

"You idiot! Your arm is broken in three places you're not fine!" Sakura was shouting after pounding Naruto on the head. "Don't worry Lady Tsunade! I'll make sure he gets there!"

 _So her name is Tsunade._

"Who's the new girl?" Tsunade asked.

Everyone turned to look at Avery. She froze for a second as everyone stared at her before she stepped forward and bowed her head. "My name is Avery Moran."

"Avery?" Tsunade asked and looked like she was thinking about something far away in her mind. "Shizune! Come here!"

At Tsunade's command, a young, thin brunette woman walked in the door. She was a little shorter than Avery and looked about Kakashi's age. She wore a black kimono with a white lining and a purple sash. She had on black strappy sandals and no obvious sign of any shorts or fighting wear. She had large brown eyes and a soft expression on her face. "Yes m'lady?" she said coming in. She was also carrying a small pig wearing a pearl necklace and a dark red jacket.

"What was the name in that letter from the sand? The one Lord Kazekage sent about a traveler from another world."

"Ah, I believe it was Avery?" She said. "Why?"

"Because she's here."

Avery could feel everyone in the room staring at her at this point. She kept her eyes on Tsunade and smiled. "I did come from there. Gaara must have sent word that I would be looking for the leaf. That was where they suggested I go. Gaara and his siblings that is," She explained.

"Right, welcome to the Leaf Village, Avery," Tsunade stood up as she spoke. "We are happy to have you, as Lord Gaara said some pretty wonderful things about you in his letter. I will need someone to show Avery around. And we need someone to allow her to stay with them until we can finish getting that apartment set up for her."

"I can ask my mom, I am sure she won't mind," Sakura said

"Shikamaru, do you mind showing her around?" Tsunade asked.

"I guess not," He said. "It's just such a drag, but I already do it for _all_ the other visitors."

"Alright then, you're all dismissed," Tsunade said, effectively ignoring her laziest ninja.

"Yes ma'am!"

Everyone filed out of the office and the door shut behind them. Avery could hear Shizune and Tsunade speaking quietly but as she was supposed to be following Shikamaru, she wasn't focused on what they were saying. They all walked out of the building together before splitting off their separate ways.

Sakura and Naruto made off toward the hospital, arguing the entire way. Kakashi and Yamato went off another way, talking quietly. Avery was distracted by them momentarily, knowing Yamato had not trusted her before. She sensed his feelings now, he was more relaxed now but still wasn't totally trusting.

"Hey Avery, are you coming?" The voice broke Avery's concentration on Yamato. She snapped back to reality and looked at Ino, who had apparently been talking to her and Shikamaru.

"I'm sorry, what were you saying?" Avery said looking apologetic.

"We'll meet you there, Ino," Shikamaru said. "I want to show her something first."

"Alright," Ino said with a smile. "Hurry though or Choji will eat everything before you can get there."

"No doubt, we'll be there soon."

With that, Ino and Choji went off in another direction together, chatting happily. Avery turned to Shikamaru, "You wanted to show me something?"

"Yeah, more like…there's someone I think you need to meet."

They walked together in the same direction Sakura and Naruto had gone in. Avery walked quietly next to Shikamaru, but wondered about who he wanted her to meet. Why? Who could she possibly need to meet?

They were approaching the hospital door when Shikamaru turned to see someone also coming up to enter the hospital. The woman had dark brunette hair and strange red eyes with an extra ring in them; like she had two irises. Shikamaru opened the door for the woman with a smile and a nod. "Kurenai-Sensei," He said smiling at her. She was wearing a simple, dark red dress and black sandals. She looked happy, and when she saw Shikamaru, her eyes beamed.

"Shikamaru, I thought you were away on a mission," She said. Her voice was low and sounded unique.

"We finished," He said simply. "We actually just returned."

Kurenai gasped "You mean?"

"Yes, they're gone."

Tears formed in Kurenai's strange eyes, she smiled wider before she reached her arms out to hug Shikamaru. "Asuma will be so proud of you guys."

"We are actually headed there to see him now," Shikamaru said returning the hug briefly. He stepped back then and looked at Avery. Just as he decided should probably introduce them though, Kurenai spoke.

"You…"

Shikamaru looked at Kurenai. Tears were spilling over her cheeks freely. "Asuma told me. You; there's no doubt you are who he described."

"Yes, this is Avery. And I can say with one hundred percent certainty, she is the reason Asuma is alive."

Kurenai immediately stepped forward and hugged her. Avery froze, not really used to being hugged by complete strangers. The woman only lingered a moment before she backed away and looked to Shikamaru again, "I have an appointment, then I'll be along."

After a nod, Shikamaru took Avery by the arm and steered her down a hallway into the hospital. They turned a couple corners and walked down another hallway. At the end of the last hallway, Shikamaru turned into a room and knocked on the door as he came in.

"Asuma-Sensei? You awake?"

"Shikamaru? I thought you were away on a mission."

The man lying in the hospital bed was the same man Avery saved the other day. He was still fairly beat up and had some pretty serious injuries. Though, with the healing Avery had done and the treatments here he looked like he would be alright. He did have a long road for recovery though.

Shikamaru walked to the foot of the man's bed so he wouldn't have to turn to see him. "We beat them," He said with a smile. He tossed something to Asuma that landed in his lap. Asuma picked it up and opened it. It was a lighter. He clicked it once and it lit up.

"I didn't even know this was gone. They won't let me smoke in here," Asuma said chuckling weakly. He set the lighter down on his bedside table and relaxed. His face was beaming with pride in his student. "Well done."

"I have someone for you to meet," Shikamaru said. He gestured for Avery to come closer to the bed so Asuma could see her easier. "This is Avery. She's the one that saved you."

Avery walked forward and stopped next to Asuma's bedside. She looked at Shikamaru nervously before turning to face Asuma. Shikamaru was the only one Avery felt totally comfortable around; though she wasn't sure why that was. Whatever the reason, she was definitely glad he was there to give her the courage to speak to the man she saved.

"Hello. I hope you're feeling better…Asuma is it?"

"Yes," He nodded. "I am feeling better thanks to you. I have wanted to thank you. You are the reason I am still alive." He spoke with a husky deep voice, weakened by his condition. He held out his hand to her, and she took it almost on instinct. "You must be an impressive shinobi."

"Actually, I am not a shinobi, sir."

"What? You're not?"

Avery shook her head, "I'm a person with special abilities. My clan referred to us as witches."

"Ah," He said, looking over Avery more carefully now. "I've heard tales of your kind. There hasn't ever been a history of them existing around here. You're of another world."

"You know about her, Asuma?" Shikamaru's shock rang clear in his voice.

"Yeah, I've heard the legends and read the stones," He said examining her. "But I never dreamed I would ever meet one." He picked up her right hand and looked at the palm. His surprise told Avery what he was looking for.

"It only shows up when someone in my clan is in danger. Which means I'll probably never see that symbol on my hand again."

"What?"

"It's why I left," She explained looking at her hand. The symbol was fading steadily, but Avery was actually a little surprised it wasn't completely gone. Tears stung her eyes as she looked at it, threatening to spill out onto her cheeks. "The man that claimed he loved me, he was my best friend. He was from an ally clan, a friend of my parents. He slaughtered my entire family. They betrayed us, so using my last bit of energy, I managed to take my family's namesake book and run."

Asuma let go of her hand, his eyes filled with sadness for her. "I see," he looked away for a moment before he met her gaze. "I'm very sorry for your loss; though I'll be extremely interested to see your abilities in the future."

"Not anytime soon, you need to heal," Shikamaru said. "You need to be around for that baby."

"Heh, yeah I'm actually really excited about that bit of news," Asuma said with a huge smile.

"As you should be," Shikamaru said.

"Yes, I am as well," Kurenai said as she stepped into the room. She set a basket down on the table next to his bed and took the towel off the top to reveal muffins and scones.

"Kurenai you're the best," Asuma said taking a muffin.

"We'll give you guys your privacy," Shikamaru said walking toward the door. "We are supposed to be meeting Ino and Choji for a post mission meal. Knowing Choji if we wait too long there won't be any left."

"Might be too late already," Asuma laughed.

"True, we'll see you guys."

They left the hospital together, and began walking in the direction of the restaurant they were meeting Choji and Ino at. Avery glanced at him as they walked; he walked with his hands in his pocket and a bored expression on his face. He caught her watching him and chuckled, "After we eat lunch I'll show you around a bit."

"Sounds good."

Avery looked at the restaurant when they got to it. It was a barbeque restaurant; and it seemed like they came here a lot. The woman at the front greeted Shikamaru by name with a warm smile.

"They're at the usual table," She said smiling. Her slightly plump cheeks had small dimples and her eyes closed with the intensity of her smile. "Hopefully Asuma-Sensei will not be in the hospital too long and will be able to join you guys again soon."

Shikamaru smiled and dipped his head toward her, thanking her for her kind words on his sensei's behalf. He led Avery through the restaurant to a booth toward the back where Choji and Ino were sitting with a table full of raw meats and rice.

"There you are! You're just in time, the food just got here!"

Avery had never seen this kind of restaurant. At each table was a little grill that was heated up for you to cook the meat on. _This is kinda awesome._ She took a plate of meat and set it on the grill and waited. She turned it over when she felt it had been long enough for the first side, and realized why everyone always joked about Choji and food. Though she wasn't sure they had actually been joking.

He pounded the table impatiently and grumbled. "Choji chill, she's the newbie she gets to go first," Ino said.

She took the meat from the grill using the chopsticks she had just broken apart. She was counting her blessings she taught herself to use chopsticks a long time ago. Her love of Chinese food was paying off.

"Seems like you're settling in nicely already," Ino said cheerfully.

"Well, I'm really observant, so I can usually figure out what I should be doing based on the actions of those around me," She said with a smile.

"Does that help you in battle? To be so observant?" Choji asked as he started eating his meat. Avery wasn't sure it was even all the way cooked.

"I'd like to think it does, it allows me to see all aspects of my opponents' abilities and fighting style," She explained between bites.

Shikamaru smirked a bit, "sounds pretty useful."

Ino shushed him, "come on! This is our chance to get to know her. You two are not going to just sit here and talk about fighting styles." Ino turned back to Avery with a smile, "tell us about where you came from. Did you come alone? How old are you?"

"You sure ask a lot of questions," Avery said with a laugh.

"I'm just curious."

"She means nosy," Shikamaru's bored tone told Avery this was common Ino behavior.

"Hush!"

"Well, I'm 19 years old, I came here alone, and my favorite color is purple."

"I didn't ask that," Ino said.

"Oh you're paying attention!" Avery joked. "Kidding, I would just rather not talk about where I came from or why I came. I just decided to change the question."

"Oh okay," Ino said suspiciously.

Avery didn't feel bad about dismissing the question. She had just laid everything out to Asuma and it was a little fresh. It was all still very new and she even still had the crest etched on her hand to prove it. She had told a Gaara, Temari and Kankuro of what happened as well as Asuma and Shikamaru. She really needed to not think about it for a little while. That emotional pain would be hard enough to break through without having to retell it a million times.

No one seemed to mind the avoidance of Ino's question, but it also stopped her flow of them. They finished eating talking about what gender the baby Kurenai was carrying was going to be. Ino thought it was a boy, Choji agreed, but Shikamaru was determined it would be a girl. When they were finished eating, the three teammates split the bill, paying for Avery, and went outside.

Choji and Ino went home shortly after they all left the restaurant and Shikamaru walked slowly down the road with Avery next to him. He seemed to not be in the tour guide kind of mood and eventually he turned to Avery. "So you've got two choices. You could decide to be rather troublesome and make me show you around tonight. Or we could just skip the tour until tomorrow and go to my house for a bit," Shikamaru said as he stretched lazily.

"Tour tomorrow, definitely," Avery chuckled. This boy was very lazy. "I've been travelling almost a little over a week. Relaxing sounds like a great use of my night."

"Okay, right this way then."

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Would love to hear your thoughts! Review! 3


	4. Chapter 4

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO**

Author notes: I am really grateful for the views everyone! I hope you guys are enjoying it! It is going to get more interesting I SWEAR, I know it started slow.

Please don't forget to comment! I would really love to hear everyone's thoughts!

ALSO: I UPLOAD EVERY WEDNESDAY!

 _Chapter Four_

Shikamaru's house was one story and had a large deck around the outside. They walked inside together and he kicked off his shoes next to the door, so Avery followed the example. He walked into a room off to the right, while Avery was busy looking at the living room and kitchen. There was a low table with cushions around it where they most likely ate their meals. The kitchen was very simple with green counters and dark wooden cabinets.

Avery followed Shikamaru after he called for her. She found him sitting across from where she stood by a board that looked like some kind of complicated version of chess. No, maybe not complicated, just different.

"It's called Shogi; I'll teach you how to play."

"Alright," she agreed putting down her backpack as she sat down across from him.

Avery knew more than Shikamaru gave her credit for. The game was long and frustrating on both sides. Avery could see her winning move; she just needed one more move before she could do it. She had just finished her winning plan when Shikamaru made a move she hadn't seen coming.

"Got ya," He said taking her king.

"Damn it! I had you."

"Yep, right up until you didn't anyway," Shikamaru said smugly.

The door opened and a man that looked an awful lot like Shikamaru walked in. He had a goatee and was clearly older with a few scars on his face. But other than that… this was definitely Shikamaru's father.

"You're home. The mission must have gone well," His dad said slowly, "Who's this?"

"Dad, this is Avery. She's new to the village, and she's the one that saved Asuma. I was just showing her how to play shogi."

"Showing? I almost beat you," Avery protested.

"Hey, no one asked you, troublesome woman."

"Alright, well if you and your new friend are hungry, your mom made enough dinner. She didn't know when you'd be back."

"We ate with Ino and Choji."

"Ah of course. Well, you might want to come introduce her to your mom before she gets mad you didn't."

"Right, probably should do that now."

"First, how did the mission go?"

"We beat them," Shikamaru said. "My plan worked great and they won't be bothering anyone anymore."

"Good, I'm proud of you boy," Then he turned and left the room.

"He's right, I have to introduce you to mom or she'll get mad. We should also probably see if Sakura's parents agreed to you staying there soon too."

Avery followed Shikamaru out to the kitchen where they found his mom preparing two plates for dinner. She looked up and saw Avery and frowned, "I didn't realize you had a new friend."

"Yeah, this is Avery."

She asked about the mission then and Shikamaru decided to go into more detail about it. Telling them about his plan and how well it worked. Avery stepped in to tell them about Naruto's new jutsu that finished the other one off and how amazing it was.

"Sounds powerful must have been impressive to see."

"Yeah, but his arm was in pretty bad shape afterwards."

"Well, I am going to take her over to Sakura's. She was supposed to be asking her parents if Avery could stay there until they finished setting up her apartment," Shikamaru said, excusing them.

Avery went to grab her backpack from the other room before she joined Shikamaru by the front door. The two put their shoes on in silence, waiting to get outside before they started talking. After putting on her shoes, Avery looked at Shikamaru's parents. "Thank you for your hospitality Mr. and Mrs.… umm…" She realized she didn't know their last name.

"Nara," Shikamaru offered.

"Mr. and Mrs. Nara!"

"You're welcome dear, welcome to the village," His mom called out as they left. "Don't be gone too long, Shikamaru."

"Okay!" He called back, "troublesome."

They walked in silence for a while before Avery got annoyed. She slyly walked really close to Shikamaru and nudged him on purpose.

"Hey, what was that?"

"Just wondered why after all afternoon, introducing me to your sensei, letting your friend interrogate me, then playing shogi and meeting you parents that now you suddenly aren't talking to me," Avery said.

"Nothing to say?"

"Bull. Or maybe you're just _that_ lazy."

"Yeah alright," Shikamaru scratched his head. "How long have to you been in the area?"

"A little over a month," she replied.

"Longer than I expected," Shikamaru said walking. He scratched the back of his head with one hand; the other still rested in his pocket.

They fell quiet as they continued to walk. Avery felt like they should have made it to Sakura's house by now. "Where are we going?" Avery asked.

"Thought we could just walk and talk a little before getting to Sakura's."

"You'd actually have to talk in order to do that," she teased.

"Yeah, yeah," he said and rolled his eyes.

 _That actually does sound nice,_ Avery thought as they walked in synchronized steps side by side. They were both silent for more than five minutes before Shikamaru finally asked the question Avery had been waiting for him to ask.

"So you came from Suna then?"

"Yes," she said simply.

"And they told you about Konoha?"

"Again, yes," she said.

"So you were there for a while then?"

Avery sighed, unable to keep the smile from playing across her mouth as she listened to him try not to ask the question he was trying to ask. "I stumbled across Suna by complete accident. I was exhausted, literally. I had no energy, or chakra I guess is what you would call it, left. I could barely even walk anymore. I collapsed in front of Suna and was out for nearly four days."

"You knew what I was trying to ask."

She nodded with a sly smile, "call it intuition."

"Heh, intuition, sure," he smirked skeptically. "I think there is more to it than that. I just can't figure you out just yet."

"You don't trust me?"

"That's the funny thing, logically I shouldn't trust you. You just showed up out of nowhere and nothing about you makes any sense at all. Yet I can't bring myself to be suspicious or not trust you."

Avery couldn't hide the smile. He too, just like Gaara, saw her as she was. The trust that came with it seemed crazy; she knew anyone else would think they had lost their minds. But the two of these men trusted her as far as they could extend such a trust and that meant the world to her. Especially being in a foreign place; she had been afraid she would be alone here.

"Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro helped me out so much. They allowed me to heal and they gave me a place to stay. I became friends with them. I actually miss them."

"Why'd you leave?"

"I can't stand heat," She said. It sounded lame but it was true. "I feel like a wilted flower in really hot climates. But more than that… I couldn't get over the feeling I was supposed to be somewhere else. Like someone needed me somewhere else," She looked down at the ground as she spoke.

"Maybe you were meant to save Asuma."

"Maybe," She said. She knew it wasn't Asuma that drew her to that situation. She hadn't even been aware of Asuma before she got to the scene and was saving his life.

They walked a little longer in a comfortable silence before he took her to Sakura's house. He knocked on the door and they waited together before Sakura answered the door and smiled. "There you are, I was starting to wonder if you were going to show up at all."

With that, Shikamaru left with a plan to come get Avery around eight AM for her tour of the village. After a brief introduction to Sakura's parents, she showed Avery to her room where she would be staying the night. Sakura had laid a pad out on the floor next to her bed with a pillow and a blanket. Sakura's bedding was sky blue with a pink comforter. There was an interesting desk with some shelves and pictures on it. She had a picture of her with Naruto when they were much younger. In the back was Kakashi, but there was also another boy with raven black hair and a stern look on his face.

Avery smiled at Sakura and put her backpack down next to the rolled out bed padding on the ground. She pulled out a pair of shorts and a large t shirt and changed quickly before sitting down on her makeshift bed.

"Oh, I was going to let you sleep on my bed," Sakura said coming in the room. She had given Avery some privacy to change.

"No I couldn't possibly! I will be fine here."

She nodded and sat down on her bed. "So did you bring those clothes with you?"

"Yeah, I had an emergency backpack with backup clothes ready just in case anything ever happened," She said. Then realizing she hadn't told Sakura the story yet she added, "I ended up having to leave in a hurry."

"Ah, I won't make you tell me. You'll tell us in time I am sure," She said. Sakura's smile was warm and genuine; like she understood not knowing but blindly trusting. "We should get some sleep though."

Avery agreed and slid under the blanket. She stared at the ceiling for many minutes after Sakura said goodnight. Eventually she heard Sakura's breathing even out and Avery fell asleep to the light snores coming from her nose.

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"What is it you're stuck on?"

Kakashi and Yamato were sitting in the training field they had just finished training Naruto in. They figured no one would hear them out here and it would be a safe place to talk. Yamato was still having a hard time with Avery's convenient appearance.

"We know nothing about her, now she's in the village. She's sleeping in the same house as one of our teammates, your former student. And no one seems to think it's strange she just happened to show up?"

" _Maa_ … Tenzou the foundation and ANBU made you paranoid," Kakashi waved his hand at him dismissively.

"I am not paranoid… and don't call me Tenzou. It's Yamato now."

"Look, if there was something up about her, I am sure Gaara would have seen it. You heard Lady Tsunade. Gaara sent word she was coming here, he trusts her," Kakashi looked at his old friend with his one uncovered eye. He had totally ignored his Kouhai's request to stop using his old name due to the new codename Tsunade had given him. "You'll have to realize that we take the alliance with the sand to heart. Gaara and Naruto are friends; he wouldn't have sent her here if he believed her dangerous."

Yamato rolled his large brown eyes, "I guess."

Kakashi wasn't sure what it was about him, maybe his eyes, but his Kouhai always made him have to think really hard about what he did. Whenever he was around Tenzou his body wanted to touch him. He couldn't even think of him as Yamato because he was his Tenzou, always would be. Though when he rolled his eyes like that Kakashi wanted to show him why rolling his eyes at his Senpai could be a dangerous action.

"Look at it this way, Sakura is strong and can easily take care of herself. Wouldn't you rather she stayed with someone for a couple days rather than just letting her be alone right away?"

"I suppose you could be right, Senpai."

"Plus, Shikamaru is showing her around the village. If anyone is going to figure out a reason not to trust her it would be him. Give her some time before you make a decision."

Yamato nodded, he was making sense even if it was just because he already trusted her. His cocky smile was apparent to Yamato even through his mask. There were so many times over the years the two of them had been on the same team that Yamato had wanted to pull that mask down and see the face under it. His strong chin…his lips.

 _No, I can't think like that,_ Yamato thought weakly. He couldn't let Kakashi know about how he really felt; he may never live it down.

"I suppose you're right," He finally agreed. "I'm sure I can give it a few days."

"Don't worry Tenzou! You'll see there probably isn't anything to worry about."

"Probably being the word. And stop calling me Tenzou."

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

 _This village really is amazing. Sorry Suna._

The more Shikamaru showed her around, the more Avery fell in love with this village. She found herself smiling as he showed her everything from where all the places he and his friends could generally be found, to the ninja academy. He even showed her a place he liked to go when he needed peace and to think.

"I come up here sometimes to get away. It's so peaceful and nice to just lie back in the grass and look at the clouds. Clouds aren't troublesome; they just float through the sky.

Something about Shikamaru and clouds told Avery just how lazy he really was.

They had been walking around the village together all day long. They had sweet dumplings and coffee for lunch; which Avery thought was delicious. Shikamaru had announced that he really didn't have much left to show her when they saw Sakura, Naruto and Sai together. Naruto's arm was in a huge cast and sling. They walked over and Avery said, "Guess you couldn't convince Tsunade your arm wasn't injured?"

"Tch, no. She of course insisted on this damn cast and I can't use my jutsu again."

"What? Why not?"

"It ruined some of the chakra endings in his arm. He could lose the ability to use chakra if he uses that jutsu too much," Sakura said.

"So now I have to come up with a new jutsu," Naruto sounded depressed. "I think I am heading out with pervy sage sometime this afternoon to go on a short training trip."

"Why can't you stay here and train with him?" Shikamaru asked.

"Because he wants to do his 'research,'" Naruto picked up his left hand and made quotations in the air with his one good hand.

Avery looked around confused. She tried picturing some weird Dumbledore character that was obsessed with women or made sexual jokes. She scrunched up her face as that weird thought filtered her mind and she shook her head and willed it away.

Shortly after the encounter, she and Shikamaru said goodbye to Naruto and his team. They wished Naruto luck on his training and continued walking.

"Let's see… I don't really know what else I could show you," Shikamaru said. "What did you do in Suna after they showed you around?"

"Just kinda hung out," she said simply.

"I see. Well, there's always shogi."

"Ha, you're on," She said. Challenge was burning in her eyes as she met his gaze.

The pair played shogi the rest of that afternoon; Avery even won a couple times. She never once felt the strange feeling that drew her to him in the first place waver; though it wasn't as strong now. She felt like she knew where she belonged, as long as it was near him. Maybe that would have been too much for some people to realize, but Avery didn't care. She knew he was someone she needed in her new life here.

She stayed at Sakura's another night before Lady Tsunade called her to her office to let her know her apartment was ready. She took her backpack of clothes and her book and went over to the apartment. Tsunade had been kind enough to supply a bed along with a kitchen and a bathroom. She peeked in the bathroom to see a narrow shower that really would only fit one small person comfortably. It was, after all, a small apartment.

Sakura's parents had been kind enough to allow her to wash her clothes at their house, so she was able to fold them and place them in the dresser in the corner of the room. It was a studio apartment, so it was all just one room. She knew it was coming, that she was short on clothes and would need some more. The people here dressed so differently though she wasn't sure she would find something she would like wearing. She tucked her pair of jeans, her bed shorts, and her three t-shirts in the drawer and shut it. She was already wearing her other pair of jeans and a dark navy blue shirt. With a sigh, she decided she would have to do something about her clothing situation.

She also had little money. She hadn't come with any because her emergency backpack for some reason did not have spare funds in it; not that it would help here. Gaara had given her some money for her travelling and she had used it sparingly, she still had some left but was not sure how she would need to use it. Maybe she could get a job.

She decided she would try to at least finding a clothing shop that had something she might like to wear in it. Now that she had her own apartment and Shikamaru had shown her around, he was done being dutifully tied to her as her tour guide. She knew she would be able to find the majority of shops, as they were all in the same area and she had a very good memory.

After successfully finding a clothing store she could definitely see building clothes from, as it actually had jeans and normal looking shirts, she decided she would buy a third pair of jeans. When the shopkeeper was ringing her up she had asked him about getting a job in the village and he asked her if she was new. When she blushed and said yes, he had given her the jeans for free and told her she could pick one other item too. She ended up picking out a deep purple jacket that zipped in front and had black lined pockets. She knew eventually it could get cold and she might need it.

Knowing she could live with that short supply of clothes, the next concern was food. Since she hadn't needed to pay for the clothes she bought, she went to another shop and started searching for some food she could stock her apartment with. She got a few things to get her through a couple of days, but she would need more money.

After dropping her new items off at her apartment, she went around to a few different shops to ask if they needed help. She ended up at the barbeque restaurant after a few places politely declined her.

"You were here the other day," The plump woman said. "With Shikamaru."

"Yes ma'am," Avery responded. "I was just wondering if you needed any help in your shop."

"Like a job? Hmm," She thought. "Why yes, I think I could use another person!"

And with that, Avery was better. At least she wouldn't starve.

The more she spent in the village, the more she liked it. Shikamaru and Avery spent a lot of time together, but she also ended up spending time with Naruto; when he wasn't on a mission. A bunch of the shinobi around Shikamaru's age, including Ino, had gotten called away on a mission and they were gone for a while. In that time, Shikamaru and Avery played shogi and he showed her some of their taijutsu fighting styles. Weeks passed and as confident as she felt in the village and with people like Shikamaru and Naruto, the more she wanted to really be a part of it. She wanted to go on missions.

Naruto had given her the idea to ask Tsunade. Naruto was another wonderful person who saw right through to her core. He knew he could trust her even if he wasn't sure why and they became close almost instantly. One day they had been sitting at Ichiraku having ramen, and he suggested it.

"I just want to be able to help. I'm not used to being useless."

"So ask Granny Tsunade if you can go on missions."

She had looked at him skeptically, "Do you really think it's that easy?"

"Sure, why wouldn't it be?"

She loved Naruto, but he could be so naïve. Although he did have a point, and the worst she could say was no.

So that afternoon, Avery decided to present herself to the Hokage. She walked up to her office and gently knocked on the door, her heart slamming rapidly in her chest.

"Come in," She heard Tsunade's bored voice.

She walked in to find Lady Tsunade's desk was flooded with paperwork. _Gaara's desk was never like this. Do they get more missions?_ Was her initial thought, but she also thought there was a chance the Lady Hokage was just a little less diligent than Gaara.

"Avery, to what do I owe the pleasant visit?"

Avery walked forward into the room and bowed her head slightly before saying, "I want to start being assigned to missions with my friends. I want to help people," she could feel her cheeks heating up as a light blush crossed them for being so forward. She knew she would never get anywhere though if she didn't ask.

Tsunade was quiet for a few minutes. "I see; I knew this moment would come." She put her hands together in front of her and thought. "I am alright with that," She decided. "But I need to see your abilities first before I can assign you to any missions."

Avery's eyebrows shot up in pleasant surprise. Her heart skipped and she bowed again, "Yes ma'am! I understand completely!"

"I will set up a sparring event for you to go against some of my ninja, the ones around your age. We can get a feel for your abilities through that."

"Yes ma'am!"

"Three days from now."

"Three?"

Tsunade nodded, "We will be inviting the Kazekage and we want to make sure he can get here in time. It takes about three days to get here from Suna if you're going straight there."

"I can get them," Avery said then. "I can have them here tonight and ready for the sparring match tomorrow."

"You can?"

"Yes, though that isn't one of my stronger abilities," She said thinking. "It might take me some time to get back once there due to the long distance. I can orb around a room in a couple minutes but orbing a three days journey away will take some out of me." She still remembered how much orbing to get to this land sucked and she didn't really want a repeat.

"What is orbing?" Tsunade asked.

"It's…like teleporting almost. I can disappear from one place," she said and closed her eyes. Blue and white iridescent lights surrounded her body as she disappeared and then reappeared behind Tsunade's desk, "and then reappear in another."

Tsunade jumped when she heard Avery speak behind her. "Well in that case, if you're serious about this, go and retrieve them today. I will address everyone about it while you're gone and we will have it set for tomorrow," Tsunade said as she stood and walked around the desk. "Shizune!" she called as she passed Avery.

The smile that spread across Avery's face was one of excitement and adrenaline. She practically ran out of the Hokage's office and out of the building. She went into her apartment and ran for the pack of ninja tools on the desk. She didn't carry it around all the time but she knew there was one in there she wanted right now.

With the kunai Gaara had given her in hand, Avery sat on her bed. She took a deep breath in through her nose that she let out her mouth as she tried to focus. Knowing that finding Suna would be the hardest part, she clutched the kunai and thought about Gaara. How much she wanted to see him and tell him about her weeks spent in the leaf village. How much she wanted to tell him about all the new friends she had made.

Then she felt it, the familiar warmth of Suna and Gaara. She could almost see her armchair in Gaara's office, she had her target. She gathered her energy and the next second she was sitting cross legged in her armchair in Gaara's office. Her friend was sitting at his desk, working of course. It was obvious he hadn't heard her appear because he froze when he felt the new presence but didn't look up. When he finally did, the shock that was plain on his face was a welcome sight.

"Avery! What are you doing here?" He asked excitedly. Even in shock and surprise, it was clear he was excited to see her.

She smiled and stood up, "I am here to-woah," She started to say but her head rushed when she stood. Orbing really wasn't her best ability.

Gaara was there beside her to steady her in an instant. "Are you alright?" He asked, worry etched on his pale face. He looked just as she remembered, including the horribly bad bags under his eyes that stated he needed about 15 years of sleep.

"Yeah, that isn't my best ability, as you can recall from my four day sleep when I got here," She said steadying herself.

"Is there a reason for that?" Gaara asked curiously. He was one of the people who believed she was a witch and was curious what made some abilities stronger than others.

"It's one of the few abilities I have that I was not supposed to have," She explained. "Which makes it harder to use and control; I have to concentrate really hard when I am trying to go somewhere specific. It also uses up a lot of my energy to do it which is why I was so close to death when I got here."

"How did you get it if you weren't supposed to have it?"

"My father, he gave it to me five minutes before he died," She said sadly. "He died about four years ago, which is why I am able to use it as well as I can. Practice makes perfect and all that, but it's probably never going to be perfect."

Gaara nodded slowly before he sighed and hugged her. "We've missed you around here," He said into her hair.

"Yeah, I have missed you guys too."

"How's Konoha?"

"Amazing! I really love it there," She said excitedly before launching into telling him about how it had been in detail. She told him about meeting the leaf ninja and going to the village. She told him about how Shikamaru had introduced her to Asuma and shown her shogi. He laughed when she said she'd be working at a barbeque restaurant so she could make some money.

"Why not go on missions?"

"That's why I am here," She said. "I asked Tsunade if I could start going on missions. She isn't against it but she said she wants to see my abilities first so she knows what to expect of me in a team."

"Then, you're here to invite me to a sparring event?"

"Yeah, you and your siblings," She said. She was very excited to see Temari again and tell her about everything.

"When did she want to do this?" Gaara asked looking at his desk.

"Tomorrow."

"That can be arranged," He said. "Go back to the house, Temari is there today, it is her day off. I will make arrangements and get Kankuro."

With that, Avery skipped out of his office and walked down the hall. Once outside she instantly regretted not changing her jeans for the shorts Temari had given her when she was living in Suna. Doing her best to ignore the heat making her jeans stick to her legs like a second layer of skin, she walked right into Temari's house and looked around for her friend.

"Temari," Avery called looking around the house.

"No…it couldn't be," She heard Temari's voice coming from around a corner. "Holy shit it is! Avery!"

The two women hugged each other then. Temari smiled seeing the happiness in her friend's eyes. She knew Konoha would be a good fit for Avery and it showed. "What are you doing here?"

Avery explained what was happening, then immediately began recounting everything that had happened since she left Suna. When she finished recounting everything Temari rolled her eyes, "That Shikamaru is always complaining about how troublesome things are. He's the laziest ninja in existence!"

"I take it you know him."

Temari smirked, "Yeah he's the one that's always in charge of showing the visitors around. And since we have an alliance with the leaf we sometimes do business with them."

Avery nodded slowly; something about the way she spoke about Shikamaru made her think there might have been some suppressed affection in her for him. It wasn't her business, but it stung an unfamiliar part of her; a little piece that felt like shouting to tell her to leave Shikamaru alone. Jealousy?

By the time Gaara and Kankuro came in the room, Avery was fanning herself. Temari had gotten her a hair tie to put her hair up and she was laying on the floor.

"Still don't like heat do you Avery," Kankuro teased.

"Not even a little bit."

She sat up and looked at Kankuro and Gaara. Kankuro looked as she remembered too, though the hooker paint was in a different pattern than it had been last time. Gaara hadn't told Kankuro about the sparring match and Avery must have left that part out in her explanation to Temari too because she got excited when she told Kankuro.

"Sparring is a great way to see abilities and its fun too."

"Ninja spar often in training," Kankuro said. "The kids have an entire round of the Chunin exams dedicated to spars."

"It will be like a real fight, just not to the death," Temari said.

Avery nodded, "I am a little nervous, she is hand picking who I will go against."

"She probably just wants a wide variety of types of fighters so she can know what to expect on all plains."

Avery nodded, still uncertain, but her excitement overpowered her uncertainty. "Let's get going," She said then and stood up.

"How do we do this?" Gaara asked.

"You all need to hold onto me, my shoulders or my hand or something."

So Temari hugged onto Avery's right shoulder while Kankuro laid his hand on her left. Gaara just slipped his hand into hers and laced his fingers through. The blush that threatened to break across Avery's cheeks was not something she had been expecting from something Gaara did. "Here we go," She warned them as she closed her eyes and imagined her apartment in Konoha. Once she felt she had it strong enough she would land there, she let her energy go and surrounded them all in the blue and white lights.

They were in Konoha, but not Avery's apartment.

"Holy shit!"

Naruto almost jumped out of his skin as the four of them appeared in his apartment. He lived in the same building as Avery. She figured she must have missed by a few doors. But instead of apologizing for scaring him, she immediately started laughing. "You should have seen your face!" She said through fits of giggles.

Naruto rolled his eyes and said hello to the sand nin next to his annoying friend.

After she finally did apologize for scaring him, they all left Naruto's apartment. She walked with them over to the door of hers, where there was a note taped to the door. It was from Lady Tsunade.

 _Avery,_

 _I have gathered everyone and told them about the spar matches for tomorrow. You will face a few pre-chosen shinobi and based on that I will decide whether or not you can go on missions. The first match will be at 2 PM. Rest up and let Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro know their guest apartment is available for them to stay in._

 _Lady Tsunade._

Avery nodded tucking the note into her pocket. She turned to the three behind her and told them about their apartment. It was actually a relief for Avery. She was starting to think she would have to try to fit all four of them comfortably in her tiny apartment.

Instead of going in, they all went to get dinner together. After eating, the sand siblings showed Avery where their guest apartment was and they sat in it talking about how the next day would probably go. After a while Avery decided she needed to go so she could get some sleep in preparation for the next day.

Avery walked home thinking about what tomorrow would be like. Nerves told her she was worried about what it would be like. What if she failed? What if she couldn't even beat one of them? She had seen a few of them fight and wasn't sure how she would compare. Only one way to find out though and that is what she intended to do.

She went straight to bed when she got home. She stared at the ceiling for a long time wishing for sleep but knowing it was the nerves stabbing at her that made her eyes stare at the ceiling. She shook her head as she tried to think about what could really be causing such nerves. Was it really just her being uncertain of what was to come? Or was there something more to it that she was overlooking? She couldn't help but think about her family. She hadn't been able to protect them, and now she wanted to go on missions in this new world. What if she wasn't good enough?

 _Stop that, that wasn't your fault and you know it._ In all honesty, she knew she wanted to go on missions purely so she could help and protect. So getting anxious and worked up over something she had no control over was not helping her. She willed herself to calm down and closed her eyes, eventually falling asleep.

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As you guys can probably guess, the next couple chapters will be more action packed. My beta and I had fun editing the next couple chapters! :D See you all next Wednesday!


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters!

ALSO, I realized I never touched on where I got the idea for Avery's abilities. Its loosely based on a show called charmed, but due to her not actually being from that world and me just using ideas I didn't label it a crossover. I wanted all the awesome Naruto fans to see it. I don't own charmed either and I twisted how the powers work quite a bit…

I love writing this fan fic, and it is going to continue to be extremely cannon until after the war which is when part two will start. just letting you all know.

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 _Chapter Five_

After sleeping as long as she decided was possible, Avery got up and stretched her sleep-stiff limbs. She gathered the clothes she would wear to fight in, a grey t-shirt and a pair of black pants with a holster around her right thigh like a lot of the Jonin wore, and went to shower. Lingering in the shower as the hot water relaxed her muscles, she thought about how today would go. She was desperately trying to keep her nerves from eating her alive, she had never been afraid of a fight before, now should be no different.

She finished showering and dressed quickly. It was while she was brushing the damp knots out of her hair that she realized she hadn't really looked in the mirror much since she had been here. She glanced toward the mirror and decided to go take a look. She looked about the same as she always remembered; her long hair a deep blue color with bangs that swept across her forehead to the right. She had thin blue eyebrows matching her hair with long eyelashes that covered her incredibly unique eyes. Her eyes had always been what had been the most unique about her as they were a deep, shimmering violet color. Her face was narrow and delicate looking, with a small nose and full lips. Her skin had a natural tan tone to it and she had a slender torso with long legs. She had a slim hourglass figure to her body, something she had always been happy about; she was very proportionate for her height. She looked at how the new pants fit her, they were tight enough they wouldn't get in the way of her fighting, but loose enough to be comfortable.

Staying in her apartment to reduce the chances of her doing anything strenuous seemed smart. She wanted to make sure she was at her best today. There was no way for her to know what she would face today.

But then again, they didn't know what to expect either.

When 1:30 hit she decided it was time to go. She still had to be able to find the training building Shikamaru had shown her the day he had given her that tour. It only took her one wrong turn before she found it, arriving fifteen minutes before two o'clock. Even with being early, she was not the first to arrive.

Shikamaru was leaning against a tree outside the training house. He looked bored, or like he could be asleep standing up. Avery rolled her eyes at his lazy tendencies and walked over to him.

"What could you possibly be so early for?" She asked upon approaching him, "Isn't it far too _troublesome?_ " She teased.

"Maybe I wanted a few minutes alone with you before the big event," He suggested with a shrug.

"Oh? And why would you want that?"

"Troublesome woman," He muttered shaking his head, "how do you feel about today?"

"Nervous, but I think it's a good nervous if that makes any sense." Her eyes met his as he approached her. His eyes were dark but bright, she had heard he was a genius. His knowing eyes proved this. Even though it had been weeks since the first time he called to her; his presence still overwhelmed her all the way to her core, igniting a shiver that was not caused by a chill.

"Well, we have a few minutes," He said, his voice had a husky quality to it as he got even closer to her. Their noses just inches apart, "did you want to talk it over at all?" He brought his hand up to caress her cheek, making a soft blush appear where his fingers trailed. He was thrilled with the sight of the color in her cheeks, but it only made her more alluring to him. He didn't know why but she was calling to him, and his blood felt like it was boiling from being so close to her.

"I…" Her thoughts became muddled with him this close. All she could think about was reaching up on her toes and pressing her lips to his.

Before Avery could finish her thought, Shikamaru's lips were on hers. His arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her closer as her arms wound up around his shoulders. When her mouth opened, he took it as an invitation for his tongue to lightly trace her full lower lip; after which he received a content sigh as a reward from her. They stayed that way for a moment, their mouths moving against each other, fighting for control.

Eventually their lungs decided to remind them to breathe and they broke apart panting, but not moving away from each other. Instead, Shikamaru traced her flushed cheek, knowing full well his face was just as pink. "I've honestly wanted to do that since I first saw you," He said softly. "You were so intriguing to me, almost tempting in a way."

Avery's eyes closed and she pressed her face into his hand. His touch felt like a slow burn under her skin that she couldn't describe. Too soon for Avery's liking, someone approached and the two stepped away from each other. Though the way both their faces burned would be a giveaway for anyone that cared to notice.

"Shikamaru, you're early!"

"That's unusual, what is this world coming to?"

It was Ino and Choji, and they were laughing as they teased their teammate. Shikamaru just rolled his eyes and said, "It was bound to happen sometime."

They all walked inside together after that. The inside of the training hall was huge. The ceilings were high with wooden rafters. The walls a grey color that matched the large cement tiles that made up the main floor. There was a step that wasn't tile in front of a sculpture of two huge arms making a hand sign. Above to the left and right were balconies for people to sit and watch what was happening on the floor. Other than that the building was rather plain inside.

They didn't have to wait terribly long for more people to join them; in fact everyone except one person was there by two. Avery almost voiced her concern that maybe he was being held up somehow, but the impatient looks on his teams faces told her this was not uncommon.

"So sorry I'm late! You wouldn't believe the traffic!"

Naruto, Sakura, Sai, and Yamato all groaned as if on cue. Yamato looked at Tsunade with an apologetic look on his face and bowed slightly. "I apologize for Captain Kakashi's actions as I know full well he won't be sorry."

"Ah, Yamato, lighten up its fine." Kakashi said laughing.

Lady Tsunade rubbed her temple a moment before she rolled her eyes and moved on from her irresponsible Jonin problems. "You all know why I have called you here today. Avery has approached me with a desire to be placed on missions; however, not knowing her abilities is hard to be able to do that. Today's goal is to see how Avery matches against the few of you I preselected in order to get a feel for her abilities. Before we get started, anyone that has not met Avery yet should introduce themselves."

Looking at everyone gathered, Avery noticed over half the people she didn't recognize. Naruto's team including the two Jonin captains was there, and Shikamaru's team along with Shikamaru's father, and of course the three sand shinobi, but after that she didn't know anyone. The man next to Shikamaru's father had been the first to speak, introducing himself as Ino's father, Inoichi Yamanaka. He had a handsome face and long blonde hair he kept tied in a ponytail on the back of his head.

After him, a man with black hair in an unfortunate cut style and impressive eyebrows stepped forward. He was very tall and was wearing a green jumpsuit with orange legwarmers. He also had a green Konoha Jonin vest on; his name was Gai. Moving on to the next person Avery felt her eyebrows twitch as this person looked like a bit shorter, younger version of the last (right down to the huge eyebrows) and she immediately wondered if they were related. He was very enthusiastic in his introduction, jumping forward and saying, "My name is Lee and it is an honor to get the opportunity to meet you! Youth truly does prevail in this world of the unknown!"

The next two were shaking their heads after Lee's little outburst. The first one a girl with twin brunette buns wearing a red and white Chinese styled outfit, named Tenten. The second a man with long brunette hair in an extremely loose ponytail named Neji. His eyes were what really caught Avery's attention about him as they were large and purplish white with no obvious iris or pupil. It made Avery wonder if it was people like this that made no one think twice about her eyes being so strange.

Moving on from them was a boy with brunette hair and red curved triangular marks on his cheeks. He introduced himself as Kiba before introducing the large white dog with him as Akamaru. The next man was wearing a green jacket with its hood up and dark glasses. His shirt came up so high it covered half of his face, Avery knew based on how little facial features she could see if she saw him without all the clothing around his face she wouldn't recognize him. He introduced himself as Shino. The last person Avery didn't recognize was a woman in a loose purple jacket with long black hair. She had the same pearlescent eyes as Neji and she was extremely soft spoken. Avery barely heard her say her name was Hinata.

Having already known the sand siblings, Tsunade moved on in her speech of how this would go. "I have preselected five shinobi for you to face Avery. You'll be fighting Lee, Temari, Neji, Naruto, and Shikamaru."

Avery nodded slowly. Five was a lot back to back but she knew there was a reason. She needed to see as much as she could to properly assign Avery to missions. She was just glad she had rested today rather than using energy she didn't need to.

"Lady Tsunade, I would also like to fight her." Gaara's calm voice broke Avery's thoughts and made her entire body freeze.

 _Ah shit._

Avery fought to keep her composure as she could feel everyone watching her. She didn't want them to think she was afraid of Gaara.

"Of course, did you want to go first?" Lady Tsunade asked.

"No, thank you. I will wait."

"In that case, Lee is up first."

Lee jumped forward excitedly, "Yes! It will be an honor to be the first to face this new friend in battle!"

Avery's eyebrows furrowed at his second strange outburst. She turned to Naruto, who was standing near her. "Is that normal?"

Naruto snorted, "That's reigned in, it's usually much worse," He scoffed.

"Yamato will referee," Lady Tsunade continued like nothing happened. "Everyone else will watch from the balcony."

Avery and Lee moved to the floor where the fight would occur. Yamato was positioned up on the ledge in front of the arm sculpture while everyone else went up to the balcony. Avery could feel her blood pulsing and closed her eyes to center herself. _He knows even less about what he's up against than you do._ She reminded herself and took a deep breath before she reopened her eyes to see Lee standing directly in front of her.

He had a smile on his face that made his large eyes seem almost childlike. His furiously bushy eyebrows arched in anticipation as he extended his hand toward her. "This is a friendly match, we should shake hands! I do hope you will be a most worthy opponent!"

Before taking his hand Avery got a better look at him. He was thin, and only an inch or so taller than her. He was wearing the same ridiculous green jumpsuit Gai wore, with the orange leg warmers. His hands were bandaged, leaving only the tips of his fingers exposed, with more bandaging running up his arms to his elbows. He wore a green vest of a lighter color than the Jonin vest, which Avery had discovered was a Chunin vest.

She took his hand and shook it with a friendly smile; he looked as though he would cry suddenly. But instead of speaking he simply turned and dashed to where he would be starting the fight. She quickly tied her hair up into a ponytail before they could start, not wanting it to be in the way. They both turned to look at Yamato who raised his arm.

"You two will fight until there is an obvious winner, or until Lady Tsunade stops you," He called out to them, they both nodded in understanding and he dropped his arm. "Begin!"

As soon as the word was out of Yamato's mouth, Lee was in motion. Avery was a defensive fighter and rarely made the first move, but it was clear Lee was not. He rushed her and leapt in the air, "leaf hurricane!" He shouted.

 _Well alright then._

Bracing herself, Avery simply lifted her hand and sent Lee flying back just an instant before his leg would have come down on her. He managed to twist in the air and land on his feet, crouching to keep his knees from buckling from impact. "What was that?" He asked staring at Avery.

She dropped her hand and regained a normal stance before she answered him. "Lee, I am not like you, I am not a ninja."

Lee's eyes widened as his surprise played across his face. He nodded once and suddenly looked more determined and focused. "That will only make you that much more of a worthy opponent!"

With that Lee advanced again, running straight at Avery. She watched him and waited until the last second before she pushed off the ground with her feet and hovered six feet in the air. Lee's punch hit nothing but air and he fell forward. He caught himself at the last moment and turned around just as Avery's feet landed on the ground again.

Turning just in time to block a kick from Lee, Avery shoved him away and tried to deliver her own blow. If she remembered correctly, Shikamaru told her that Lee could only do taijutsu which was just a form of close combat. Lee could not use genjutsu or ninjutsu, which meant that he spent all of his time harnessing his taijutsu. That put them both at a disadvantage in their own ways: for Lee, this is all he had, for Avery, this is all Lee had.

 _If I could just actually land a hit! He's too fucking fast._

Lee's speed was intense, Avery had to do everything she could not to take one of his blows, but that meant she had trouble trying to deliver her own. She blocked a punch with a little more force behind it and it made him stagger, giving her the opportunity to jump away.

Immediately, Avery ran at her opponent, launching herself into her attacks without pausing at all between them. His speed really was impressive as he managed to block her attacks and still try to land his own. It wasn't until they both went to make the same exact move, both landing the punch and each of them sending the other flying from the intensity.

Murmurs from the people watching on the balcony could be heard as Avery and Lee got back to their feet. Lee ran at Avery, but she had a sly idea. She ran at him and slid underneath him when he was going for a punch. Before he could correct himself, she was up and able to land an unanswered punch and then a kick that sent Lee to the ground.

"No way!"

"She got him!"

The surprised shouts from the balcony told Avery how uncommon it was someone beat Lee like that. She prepared for him to come at her again, which he did and they went hand to hand again, blocking or hitting each other at the same time.

"Alright, that's enough."

As soon as Tsunade called the match to end, the two fighters straightened up and put their hands down. Avery looked up to the balcony where she was watching from, wondering if the match had bored her. She didn't think that seemed right, so she figured she just wanted to see more than taijutsu.

Tsunade watched the two shake hands again before Lee made his way up to the balcony. He was a fast and strong taijutsu fighter, on his way to becoming a master like his sensei. Avery was clearly a skilled fighter, but now it was time to find out her powers more than just her fighting ability.

"Temari," Tsunade called, "you're up."

Temari grabbed her weapon and walked down to the floor. She took a breath, having not had to fight Avery she didn't know what to expect. But she knew that this fight would be much different than the last. Temari was not a close combat fighter.

Avery smiled at her friend and they shook hands like she did with Lee. She had never seen what Temari was carrying before. It looked like a long black weapon of some sort, almost like a plank. Without being able to hold it Avery couldn't quite tell what it was. The two women took their positions and waited for Yamato to call the beginning of the fight.

"Ready?" he asked the two women, and when they nodded he said, "begin."

Nothing happened at the start of this fight. Neither of the two moved to attack the other. _She must be a defensive fighter too_ , Avery thought as she weighed her options for what to do. She touched her hip, where her pack of ninja tools she had acquired was clipped to her pants. Maybe she should think about using them.

"You know, Avery, I do like you and I would hate for this to end too quickly, so why don't you go ahead and make a move," Temari said smugly.

Avery felt her eyebrow rise at her friend; she didn't figure Temari for trash talk or bragging. _She's baiting me._ She thought and smirked a little. If that was how she wanted to play, Avery could play too; she just had to keep her cool and stay calm.

Eventually, as Avery expected, Temari grew impatient. "Fine, I guess I'll have to go first after all." She took the black metal object she had and opened it to reveal it was a large white fan with three purple circles on it. "Wind scythe jutsu!" she shouted as she waved the fan.

Avery could feel the air change from the chakra Temari released into it. The chakra formed a huge gust of wind with the intensity of knives that went straight at Avery, slicing into her skin. She threw her arm up over her face and braced against the wind before throwing her own energy out as a blue tinted shield to protect her from Temari's attack.

When it stopped Avery put her arms down and let go of her shield, as it took a lot of energy to keep it up that way. She put her mind to work, trying to figure out how she was supposed to reach Temari. She was a mid range fighter with a skill like that. Then she had an idea.

She reached into her pack and pulled out a shuriken, throwing it at Temari. She blocked it of course but it distracted her long enough for Avery to start running at her. Temari prepared another attack and as soon as she let it go, Avery changed from running directly at her to running to the right in a circle around her, slowly getting closer. Temari tried other jutsu with her fan that Avery blocked or disbanded using her hands to throw her energy at them. By the time Temari realized what she was doing and how close she was, it was too late and Avery landed a kick that sent Temari sailing.

Once again, murmurs could be heard coming from the balcony as Avery tried to slow her breathing. She took them as encouragement and ran at Temari again; but she had regained enough composure that she whipped out a wind attack that sent Avery flying backward. Just before Avery hit the ground, she orbed and reappeared just behind Temari, getting another good kick in. She tried to go at her again but Temari once again threw her back with her fan.

They went back and forth for a while longer before Avery decided she'd had enough of cat and mouse. "You know," She said through her ragged, tired breaths, "this is real fun, but I think I'm done playing."

"Oh really?" Temari tried to sound unfazed, but her breathing was just as hard as Avery's.

Avery just smiled at her and simply held out her hands in front of her, "Fan."

Suddenly, Temari's weapon was surrounded in the same blue and white iridescent lights that her orbs surrounded her body in. The next instant, the fan was in Avery's hands. She looked up to see the look of shock cross Temari's face and opened the fan. Even though her chakra like energy wasn't the same, the fan still responded to it. She could feel it reaching in to her and knew if she put her energy into the fan; it would magnify whatever power she put through it.

"Let's see, what was it you did? Like this?" Avery waved the fan, and exactly as she thought it would, it magnified the telekinesis energy she put into it and sent Temari flying so hard she hit the wall and crumpled to the ground.

"Temari!" Avery shouted as she immediately ran forward to help her. Kakashi jumped down from the balcony as everyone exchanged their own shock and impressed sounding comments about what they had all just seen. Together, Avery and Kakashi took Temari up to the balcony and got her seated in a chair.

Temari let out a groan and held her head for a moment before she looked up at Avery. "No one has ever taken my fan from me before. I'm impressed."

"Are you hurt?" Sakura asked, moving forward to assist.

"Yeah, my foot, I think it's broken."

"I'll treat it," Sakura said crouching in front of Temari.

"No, let me do it."

Everyone stared at Avery as she knelt in front of Temari. She picked Temari's foot up carefully to place it on another chair in front of her before she held her hands over the top of her foot. The warm, golden light that was so familiar to Avery began to heal Temari's injury. After just a couple minutes she dropped her hands and stood up straight. "You should be fine to walk in a couple minutes."

Shock was clear on Temari's face, even more than it had been when Avery took her fan. "It doesn't even hurt anymore," she said as she moved her foot lightly.

Avery turned to see Tsunade staring at her. Her stare was hard and almost cold as she tried to find what to say. "You can heal," she said finally trying to keep her voice even.

Avery nodded, but before she could speak, Shikamaru said, "You did heal Asuma. At least a little."

She nodded again.

"But if you can heal," Tsunade looked wary and skeptical as she spoke. "Then why didn't you-"

"Heal Naruto's arm?" Avery finished for her.

Sakura paused as well, staring at her. Avery let her empathic sense take in the situation. She could feel everyone's doubt; all except three people.

"It's just that, I didn't know any of you at all yet. I wasn't really crazy about showcasing my abilities to a group of strangers," she said simply.

"Then why did you heal me?"

Everyone turned to see Asuma standing at the top of the steps up to the balcony. He looked better, at least more stable than the last time Avery had seen him, but it was obvious he wasn't fully recovered even the few weeks later.

"Asuma Sarutobi, what are you-" Tsunade started to lecture.

"Don't worry Lady Tsunade, I just came to watch," Asuma said waving his hand, trying to reassure her. "I'll even sit in a chair if it makes you feel better."

Tsunade pursed her lips but didn't continue, so Asuma walked over to the chair Temari's foot had been in and sat down. The attention was back on Avery now as Asuma and everyone else looked up at her, waiting for the answer to his question. Avery took a deep breath as she thought about how to explain this.

"One of my abilities is empathy," she started, looking around at everyone's unsure expressions. Well, everyone except three. "It's one of the few abilities I was actually born with instead of acquiring over time. I am also the only empath in our world we have ever heard of being born with the power, and because of that, or so we assume, I can actually turn it off and on."

"What is it?" Tsunade asked.

"It's the ability to read the emotions of others. Not even just read them, but feel and understand them too," Avery explained. "Like I said, I can turn it off so I don't have to feel everyone's emotions all the time. It tends to feel invasive when I do that so I generally only use it when I need or want to know something I feel someone isn't telling me." She chuckled for a second at the word need; it was almost ever what she wanted to know not need. "For example, right now there are three people in this room that still totally and irrevocably trust me, while the rest of you have doubts. Those three are Shikamaru, Gaara, and Naruto."

All three boys smiled.

Avery chuckled, "Now there are a few of you second guessing yourselves after hearing that Gaara and Naruto still trust me." Tsunade was shaking her head slightly; she seemed to put a lot of faith and trust in Naruto.

"There is only one instance I can't actually control it," Avery continued. "When an emotion is strong enough that it invades me without me wanting it to; and if it's strong enough, I'll react without realizing it." As she was explaining, it was clear that everyone was realizing what must have happened with Asuma. And Shikamaru knew exactly what happened.

"So, what was it?"

"Avery looked at Tsunade, "what?"

"What was the emotion?"

"And who was it coming from?" Sakura asked.

Avery didn't answer at first; instead she looked up at Shikamaru. He nodded. He already knew what happened that day. He knew it had been his feelings that had made Avery jump into action the minute she started explaining her power. There was no point in hiding it; everyone in that room knew what it was like to love their sensei.

She looked away from Shikamaru toward Asuma when she realized he already knew too. The expression on his face as he looked at Shikamaru almost broke Avery's heart. The amount of admiration and brother like love that came from Asuma for Shikamaru was something that not everyone always got a chance to feel and understand. This was Avery's favorite ability for a reason, but it also got her into trouble.

Looking back up to Shikamaru, she finally answered.

"It was a hopeless despair," she said with tears in her voice as she remembered the feeling. "And it was radiating out of Shikamaru."

No one said anything for a while after that. It seemed as though a calming chill had been placed over everyone and if anyone spoke too quickly it would shatter the moment. Though eventually the air did warm again and Shikamaru smiled at Avery, who was still watching him.

"I think," Tsunade was the first to speak. "We should get the next match going."

Avery nodded and stabilized herself, turning off her empathy. She knew she would need it to focus on the coming matches, and wondered if she would have to do them all today, her energy had taken a serious hit after Temari's fight.

"I think, I would like to fight now," Gaara's calm voice said.

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More fighting to come in the upcoming chapters! Thank you all so much for the continued support! Let me know what you guys think!


	6. Chapter 6

_Chapter Six_

Author notes: WHAAAAAAT? EXTRA CHAPTER?! I got excited and wanted to share more with you guys! :D

I do no not own Naruto or any characters or anything!

I know you guys are starting to see romantic drama… YEAAAH it's gonna get intense later! ;)

ENJOY!

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Avery's entire body froze. She didn't really want to fight Gaara and she didn't mind admitting it. She tried to move but her body was too tense so she looked to Shikamaru for support.

"You'll be fine," he said laughing at her.

She started to try to argue but he just gently pushed her toward the stairs. She shoved him back for laughing at her before she went with her nose in the air; Gaara following behind her.

Shikamaru looked up to see Naruto watching him with amusement lighting his eyes. "What?' he asked.

"Oh, nothing," Naruto said before walking over to lean on the railing.

As Shikamaru swatted Naruto for being annoying, Temari watched him with a mixture of jealousy and frustration. She was too stubborn to admit she liked him, but she didn't want him to like Avery too much. She decided she would ignore it for now, but at some point she would need to address the feeling in her gut when she saw him look at her.

Down on the floor, Gaara had walked passed Avery then turned to stand directly in front of her. "You've done well so far," he said with a smile. He held out his hand to her to like the other two had, "let us see how you progress."

"I dunno," She said as she took his hand to shake it, "you've been sitting behind that desk a while. You sure you're ready for this?" she taunted. "You've got some pudge."

The next thing anyone heard was Kankuro's laughter from the balcony. They both looked up to see him gripping the rail with one hand while his other arm was over his stomach. However, the look Gaara gave him made him fall silent as his skin paled several shades.

Avery smirked a little and went to take her stance as Gaara walked away from her. She heard Naruto on the balcony muttering something about her taunting him but Kankuro got in trouble and she rolled her eyes. She tuned him out; she needed to focus.

"Ready?" Yamato asked once again, though this time he was trying not to laugh. Still, when they nodded he said, "Start."

For the second time after Yamato started a fight, no one moved. They just stood there watching each other until Gaara let a trail of sand spill out of the gourd on his back. From there it swirled around him by his feet and just above his head.

 _So that's what is in that gourd he carries around._

She reached into the pack on her hip and grabbed a shuriken. There was a theory she had after seeing the sand that she wanted to answer. She held it delicately between her index and middle fingers before she flicked it at him with deadly accuracy.

Inches before it would have hit him right between his eyes, his sand blocked the weapon and it clanged to the floor.

 _So it defends…does it…?_

"So it's defensive sand," she said out loud.

"Dear Avery, I never took you for a person to assume things," Gaara said. In the next instant sand came shooting out of the gourd at her. Before she could move, her legs were completely encased in sand and she couldn't move.

"Doesn't seem like it is purely defensive now, does it?" he teased as the sand tightened around her feet and legs. More sand swirled loosely around her and before closing in on her shoulders as well.

A feeling invaded her mind from the balcony. Lee's anxiety; and it told her what she needed to know about how this attack worked. She smiled at him and orbed out of her sand boot prison, reappearing a few paces ahead of where she had been standing. She ran at him, ready for attack, but his sand was faster.

A wall of sand appeared right as Avery's punch pushed forward, so she punched the wall instead. She regained her balance and ran to the side to go at a different angle, but the sand moved with her no matter where she went. And it was fast.

"Now what? Can't win if you can't get to me," he was taunting her. He spoke quietly enough that she knew she was the only one that would be able to hear him, but still.

"I'm not going to let you get to me, Kazekage- _butt_ ," she said repeating a name she had called him once in his office all those weeks ago.

He smiled, though he knew she wouldn't be able to see it through the sand. In all honesty, he wanted her to figure out a way to beat him. He was so torn between wanting to try even harder to show her up, and encouraging her to figure out a way passed his defenses.

She sighed and stepped back a moment before she got an idea. She stepped directly in front of the wall and placed her hands together at the middle of it, only her finger tips touching the wall. Very slowly, she began to pull her hands apart, moving the wall apart where her fingers touched it. When she had it far enough apart that she could see Gaara's expression, shock mixed with interest, she used her eyes to throw him back. The same way she had done to Shikamaru when he caught her with his shadow.

Gasps and whispers were heard then as Gaara regained his feet. He shot a look at her, "Impressive Avery, but what will you do with this?" He then twisted his sand around him and created a solid dome of sand.

Avery stood straight and cocked her head to the side. She waited a moment, trying to see what his game was when she noticed a large, floating eye above her and the dome.

"So you're still watching me," she said and walked over to the dome. She pressed her hands against the side of the dome and pushed. It was completely solid. As she was trying to think of what to try; multiple sharp points burst out from the dome at her. She jumped back just in time to not get hit, landing in a crouch about two feet away from the dome.

After deciding she would go with her initial plan she stood up. Closing her eyes for a moment and rolling her shoulders, she took a breath and felt her energy tingling at her fingertips. She exhaled and she flicked both her hands at Gaara's dome, willing her power to blow a hole in the sand dome.

The bewildered look on Gaara's face was almost enough for Avery to start laughing too hard to continue her plan. _Almost_. She burst forward in a run and threw a punch that sent him flying out the back of the dome.

Gaara clutched his head, which was pounding now as he stood, he could feel the sand armor had a crack in it but he forgot completely about that when he looked up. Avery was not standing in front of him. _Shit,_ he thought as he realized what happened.

She grabbed his arm and bent it behind his back. Then she positioned the kunai in her hand at his throat. "Got you." She said with an impish grin.

He didn't move but tried to call the sand to come knock her away. She saw this and put the same blue tinted shield from her fight with Temari all around them. His sand couldn't break through. He was finished.

Gasps were heard again from the balcony. Gaara didn't move until she lowered the kunai from his throat after they heard Yamato signal the end of the match. That was when Gaara realized he wasn't wearing his gourd anymore. "Where did-?" He started to ask before he saw it in the corner of the room. He looked at her with an impressed smile. "Very good." He approved.

"Thank you," she said and called his gourd back. Once it appeared in her hand she handed it back to him. His sand was sliding back into it as he put it on and walked back to the balcony.

She took a moment then to try to breathe. She had used a lot of energy in those fights. The power it took to blow the hole in Gaara's dome was more than she expected, and all the orbing she had done. Using the orbs to move objects didn't take as much as actually orbing herself but it was enough to make her uneasy about having to continue.

"Neji is next."

Neji was one of the two that had the strange eyes. She looked over him as he walked closer; he had on a white shirt with loose sleeves and matching white pants with a dark gray apron over his left shoulder. The apron split in front so it rested on each leg. He had his headband on his forehead like Temari, and it occurred to her she wasn't really looking for the headband on anyone that didn't have it on their foreheads. She would have to remember to look later if Lee had one.

Neji didn't speak a word as he shook Avery's hand then took his position. She supposed he was just a little standoffish and didn't like people. She mentally shrugged and ignored the thought, pushing her coming fight to the front of her mind.

"Begin," Yamato said, not bothering to ask if they were ready.

For the third time in a row no one moved right away. Avery was grateful for defensive fighters because she could collect herself and try to regenerate at least a little energy. Though she realized soon why Neji didn't move right away.

"Byakugan," he said loudly.

The change that happened was all around his eyes. Those strange pearlescent eyes changed, they looked rougher now. They looked as though they had a texture to them; like a wall that if you felt it, it would be rough under your hand. Around his eyes, vein like strips stuck out from his once smooth skin; but as Avery was trying to work through her confusion, Neji was struggling himself.

"What the-?" Neji asked.

"Hinata, what is he seeing?" she heard Tsunade ask on the balcony.

"Byakugan."

 _What the hell is that strange word?_

Avery looked at the balcony. She remembered that Hinata was the other of the group with the pale eyes and now her eyes had the same textured look that Neji's did.

"She has no chakra network," Hinata was saying. "It's just a huge mass of energy."

Avery still wasn't sure what Neji was seeing, but she did see a window of opportunity. Taking advantage of Neji's confusion, she ran at him to attack. But right as she was preparing her punch, Neji countered.

"Gentle fist!" he shouted and struck her left shoulder with his chakra. She cried out in pain, though her arm was still moving forward in her punch. But instead of hitting him with her hand, her energy ran through her arm and threw Neji back, knocking him on his ass.

Avery clutched her shoulder and tried to figure out what had happened. She wasn't going to use her powers. She was just trying for a punch. How did that happen?

"What the hell was that?" Neji asked aloud as he got to his feet.

"Hinata?"

"It was almost as if Neji's chakra had boosted her power even though she wasn't going to use it. He hit her shoulder and it triggered a reaction in her nervous system. The nerve he hit is directly connected with the energy field running through her. The nerve that he struck appears to have shot the signal right to her brain and made her other arm react to protect her." Hinata explained.

 _Of course, that's why my head is throbbing now too_ , Avery thought as she rubbed her shoulder. She had never experienced anything like that before. She watched as he regained his position. He held his left arm down by his hip, palm up in a fist, while his right hand was positioned in front of him, ready to block; a stance ready for an attack.

She decided it wasn't worth it to wait for him to move so she ran forward. He braced himself and was ready this time.

"Rotation!" he said and twirled his chakra forming a bubble around him as Avery tried to attack. She hit the bubble and was thrown back, but the area around her shook with her own energy. She saw Neji struggle to stay on his feet, but he did manage it. She immediately came at him again; though this time he, wisely, chose not to use his chakra to attack her.

They fought hand to hand then, and it took a few minutes, but Avery could feel Neji growing impatient with this strict no chakra fighting. She knew it would only be a matter of time before he got fed up and used his chakra to fight again.

 _How does Lee do this?_ Neji thought as he took a hit but managed to return it with one of his own. He was trying to remember he shouldn't use his chakra but this was just so…infuriating. He couldn't keep doing this.

He thought maybe eight trigrams would overwhelm her enough her chakra wouldn't be able to react. Feeling his patience for this fighting style snap he went for it.

"Eight trigrams: sixty-four palms!"

Avery felt him lose his last bit of patience in an instant. When she heard him shout his new attack, she threw her shield up and let him hit it instead of her. The shield held steady as he continued to strike it, but something else happened as well. It started to hum, and Avery also noticed it was getting hot. She had never felt it do this before, and the more he struck it, the louder it hummed. He was just finishing thirty-two palms when they heard Hinata shouting.

"Neji! Stop!"

Hearing Hinata shouting, he realized she was seeing something he didn't. The shield she had put up was moving, her energy that made it up was swirling around the chakra he put into it so fast that it just looked like it was zigzagging back and forth. He didn't like the look of it, nor had he ever seen anything like it.

That was when Avery decided to let the shield go; but rather than just disappear, it exploded outward. The explosion was so intense that it left a circle on the ground where the shield had been touching and it threw Neji so hard into the wall that he crumpled to the floor unconscious. Avery looked toward where Yamato had been standing to see he had also been blown back by the blast into the sculpture of the shinobi arms, also unconscious.

Kakashi had lurched forward a tiny amount, so small no one except him noticed, before he caught himself. He watched Tenzou get caught in the blast and immediately wanted to go to him. _He's fine… he's fine… shit, he's unconscious._

Everyone on the balcony had made it through unscathed, but the balcony's railing had marks on it where the blast had hit it. It had been just out of range to completely destroy it though. Sakura, Naruto, and Hinata had come running down to help Avery see if Neji and Yamato were alright. Sakura and Naruto went to Yamato while Hinata went with Avery toward Neji.

Avery dropped to her knees next to him to heal him. The same golden light coming from her hands healed his minor injuries and he woke up in a daze.

"What the fuck," he said weakly, but Avery figured it was a rhetorical question.

Sakura and Naruto helped Yamato sit up once he came around. Kakashi had willed himself to stay put even though he wanted to be the one helping Yamato up instead of Naruto.

Yamato rubbed the back of his head where he had hit it but other than that he was fine. He was walking slowly back to his position as referee when Avery and Hinata helped Neji to his feet; this fight was over.

"We'll stop for today and continue tomorrow," Tsunade said. "Do you guys need to go to the hospital or are you both alright?" She asked Neji and Yamato as they joined the group from the balcony now on the training ground.

"'m fine," they both mumbled.

"Alright, then we will pick this back up tomorrow, same time." Tsunade said but before she left her face lifted in a smirk. "Though one of you boys that got your asses handed to you owes Avery dinner tonight. You can decide which one," she ordered before she left.

Neji and Gaara both looked at each other. Neji sighed in defeat and stepped forward; but before he could say anything…

"I would like to volunteer," Gaara said with a soft look in his aqua eyes.

Avery looked at Gaara with a soft smile; maybe giving them some time alone would allow her to figure out why she liked him when she knew she'd never be able to have him. And then there was Shikamaru, she rubbed her temple gently; trying to break up a pain that had gathered there that had nothing to do with the fights.

Everyone else left the building all together, only breaking off into smaller groups after they exited the building. Most of them were chatting excitedly about what they had seen. The ones that lingered around Avery when they left the building were the three sand shinobi, Shikamaru, Naruto, Kakashi, and Yamato.

"That was pretty damned impressive today. You've got some power behind you," Kakashi said turning to her. "Then you add the skill…it was fun to watch."

"Thank you," she said smiling at him. "I wasn't sure what to expect from today. It went better than I thought it would."

He nodded and looked at Tenzou, "come on lets go get you an ice pack or something." Even with his face mostly covered, it was obvious he was trying not to laugh at his kouhai. Though even through his laughter, he really was worried about him.

"Thanks so much, Senpai," Yamato replied bitterly to his former captain's teasing.

After they left the two that hadn't fought today looked Avery over. Avery smiled at them, "Maybe Tsunade will make one of you two take me out tomorrow night."

"We'll see about that missy," Naruto said, rolling his eyes as he spoke. He gave her a hug and said, "Get some rest; you'll need it for tomorrow." Then he and Shikamaru left together.

"We'll see you when you come back Gaara," Temari said taking Kankuro and walking toward their apartment.

"What…? We aren't going?"

"No."

Avery watched Gaara with curious eyes. He smiled at her before he asked, "Is there anywhere you want to go?"

"Umm…Ramen?" she asked him smiling sweetly.

"Sure, sounds good."

They walked in comfortable silence toward the ramen stand. Ichiraku was also Naruto's favorite place to eat and she had let him show it to her. Now she loved it almost as much as he did.

They took their seats next to each other and ordered their ramen. It wasn't long before Gaara broke the silence. "So you like it here?"

Avery smiled, "yes, I do like it here. The temperature is much more manageable and I like the cute buildings. Not to mention trees and grass."

"Oh you never said grass was a deal breaker, damn I guess Suna really is out," he said pouting playfully.

She just laughed at him. "You never show anyone else this playful side of you. You're always so stern with everyone else."

He shrugged, "everyone else gets on my nerves when they are being annoying. Well…not Naruto," he said remembering his friend. "But he is an idiot."

"Aww I thought idiot was my pet name," she said in a tone of mock hurt.

"Oh shut up, idiot."

Avery burst into a fit of giggles then and Gaara couldn't help joining her laughter. They had just stopped laughing when Ayame gave them their bowls and told them to enjoy it.

"She's nice," Avery said as she broke her chopsticks apart.

"I wouldn't know I'm rarely ever here," Gaara said sadly. He missed Avery. He missed her sitting in his office bothering him about how hot it was. He missed her walking around in the morning in her tattered shorts and oversized night shirt before he left for his office. He missed her presence in the house.

"Yeah, I miss you guys too," she said reading into his face.

"That obvious?"

"Never play poker."

Gaara rolled his eyes at that, "you were impressive today."

"I forgot that you guys didn't really get to see what I can do either. It was kinda fun to watch everyone have the same shocked expressions when I did what I did to them," she said as she slurped a few noodles. "Though I actually feel kinda bad about what happened with Neji. I have never experienced anything like that."

"He's a big boy, I am sure his feelings are not too bruised," Gaara assured her with an amused expression.

"It was nice of you to volunteer to be the one to take me out," she said bumping him with her shoulder.

"That was an entirely selfish act," he admitted with a wicked expression. "Now I have you all to myself, which I haven't had in weeks."

Avery stuck her tongue out at him and then bit her lip, "it was still nice."

"Yes, I suppose so."

They ate in silence then, not sure what to say to each other. When they left, Gaara decided he would walk Avery back home so she could get her rest. She used a lot of energy today and she needed to rest. Avery walked very close to him while she led him towards her apartment.

"I have to ask…but you don't have to tell me if you don't want to," she started, unsure how to shape the question. She decided the blunt approach would work fine, "what did you do to Lee with that sand?"

"Ah," Gaara said looking at the ground, "so that was how you knew what it would do."

She didn't answer; she just watched turmoil and anger cross his face before it melted back into his normal, fairly bored expression. "During our first Chunin exams, I had to spar with Lee for one of the slots in the final round. It had been a good fight, and Lee definitely had potential, even then. But I was..ah…much different then."

"Different how?"

"I was monstrous," he said evenly. He sounded like it was something he had come to terms with over the years. "I used to be the host for a demon spirit the sand has had for decades, and it made me…a little erratic as a child."

"You're not like that now, what changed?" Avery asked.

"Naruto changed me. He had an effect on me no one had ever had. Even Temari and Kankuro were afraid of me. I would murder people on a whim because they irritated me. I almost killed Lee," he stopped, his voice catching in his throat. Even though he had gone later to aid Lee, and had apologized to him for what had happened, he still felt terrible.

"Naruto seems to be held in somewhat high regards around here," Avery noted.

"He's a special kind of person."

"I could have told you that," Avery said laughing.

"I mean it. He has a resolve that never gives up. He's so determined it borderlines on stubborn to the degree of near stupidity. He is a complete idiot, but he is also one of my dearest friends."

The way Gaara spoke so highly of Naruto, and so emotionally of what happened with Lee…Avery knew she wasn't wrong about Gaara. They fell silent again after that and when they reached her building, she turned toward him.

"This is me."

Energetic silence followed her statement. It seemed to them both like they weren't ready to leave each other, though it would only be for the night. Unable to think of anything else to say, Avery decided to just go ahead and continue her question from earlier.

"So what happened during the fight between you and Lee?"

Gaara's expression became clouded with sadness and guilt. "I had encased his right leg and arm in sand."

"And crushed them…" she finished for him.

Gaara nodded sadly, "I almost ruined his life. His ninja career should have been over." He bit the inside of his cheek for a second, trying not to tear up or shout. "Tsunade saved him."

"But you still feel awful about it," she said feeling the waves of guilt coming off of him. "Have you ever talked to him about it?"

"Yes, the first mission he went on after his surgery, too early for him to be on a mission, I got to go save his life." Gaara relaxed a little bit but was still tense. "I do believe it helped me to be able to go to him that day, and I talked to him about it. But I've still never gotten over what I almost did to him."

Avery nodded, understanding the pain Gaara felt was something he had been struggling with for years. "I can't imagine Lee holding a grudge."

"No," Gaara almost smiled then, "he doesn't."

Avery took Gaara's hand and held onto it, the warmth of his skin spreading over her cool hands. She knew she and Gaara weren't right for each other, and that kept her from feeling romantic toward him, but she did feel for him. He was her first friend in this new world, closely followed by his siblings. She knew Gaara would always be special to her and that caused her to almost wish there could be more; but she would just have to settle with being one of his best friends.

 _She just wins everyone over_ , Gaara thought as he looked in her deep, amethyst eyes; he liked the color of her eyes. It seemed to him that she was doing extremely well in this village. Everyone really seemed to like her and root for her as they watched her fight. He had seen Naruto and Shikamaru talking quietly to each other and assumed it had been about her. He wasn't sure what was happening with Shikamaru and Avery, but he did know that his sister had a crush she was unwilling to admit to on the shadow user. Gaara just hoped it all worked out with little drama involved.

 _Heh, yeah right_.

Standing there with her holding her hand, Gaara thought about leaning in to kiss her. However, the more he thought about it, the less he found he really wanted to kiss her. Instead, he pulled her to him by the hand he had been holding and wrapped his arms around her in a strong hug. He felt her hand let go of his and her arms wrap around him as she relaxed against him. He took his newly freed hand and ran it over her hair. When they broke apart he leaned in and kissed her forehead, returning the kiss she had given him all those weeks ago.

"Sleep well, I'll see you tomorrow," he said and turned to leave her.

Avery smiled and walked up to her apartment. She was so happy to have her sand friends here; she knew it would be rough when they had to leave. When she walked into her apartment, she set down the key and took off her pants before she immediately fell into bed and passed out.

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"Here you go."

"Thanks, Senpai," Yamato said as he took the icepack from Kakashi. He placed the ice pack on the back of his head where he had hit it when he got caught up in the blast and leaned back against the back of the couch. He closed his eyes and soon felt Kakashi sit next to him on the old couch in Kakashi's apartment. He didn't come here very often, but when he did he always found it hard to sit next to his Senpai without wishing they could talk about everything Yamato had spent years keeping from the other man.

"Are you feeling alright? I know Tsunade didn't make you go to the hospital, you don't have a concussion or anything do you?" Kakashi asked him, his voice serious. He was rarely serious as a rule except when it was necessary. Though Kakashi found he was often more serious about Tenzou than anyone else. He probably always would be; he had been the one to save him when he was just a boy. He was his captain, he helped him train, helped him become the shinobi he was today. He would always have a soft spot in Kakashi's heart, though Kakashi usually wished it was more.

"Yes, I think so."

They sat in comfortable silence for a long time. Each lost in their own thoughts about the other. When the icepack was soft and warm, Yamato sighed and opened his eyes, sitting up. "I should go," he said as he handed the ice pack back to Kakashi.

"You can stay here if you want… I can sleep on the couch," Kakashi offered, worry still shining in his eyes.

Yamato just smiled at him, "Thank you, but I will be more comfortable in my own bed." Though that wasn't entirely true, he would have loved an excuse to sleep in Kakashi's bed, but only with Kakashi next to him.

"Alright."

Kakashi walked him to the door and made like he was going to follow him, "Senpai, I can walk myself home."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'll be fine. See you tomorrow."

Kakashi nodded once, his chest tightening, "Be safe, Tenzou."

Yamato nodded once, and walked away.

Kakashi watched him until he couldn't see him anymore. He walked back into his apartment and shut the door, leaning against it and closing his eyes. He needed to get a grip on himself, because even though he wanted Tenzou, he knew he was never going to be able to have him. He had come to terms with that in their ANBU days, now wouldn't be any different. He had cursed Tsunade a little when she assigned him to Kakashi's team, but he also knew it was coming. He had to be the only one that could help Naruto control the Nine-Tailed Fox demon spirit in the boy.

He collapsed into bed and fell asleep thinking about what he wished his relationship with Tenzou could be like.

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Naruto shuffled around his apartment as he got ready for bed. He was still thinking about the conversation he had had with Shikamaru as they left the training hall that day.

" _You like her don't you?" He had asked the shadow user._

" _I dunno, women are just so troublesome."_

" _You can cut the crap, I see right through your bull you know."_

" _You're more perceptive than anyone gives you credit for, you know that?" Shikamaru scratched the back of his head. "Why do you wanna know anyway?"_

" _I just…she's already becoming a close friend for me. I would hate for anything to happen to make and make her feel like she doesn't want to stay here," Naruto said._

" _I don't want her to leave either, man," Shikamaru said snidely, but he knew Naruto had a point._

" _Just…be careful, okay?"_

" _Yeah, sure thing."_

Naruto shook his head, and plopped onto his bed. He couldn't promise he wouldn't punch Shikamaru if he screwed with Avery's head; but he could promise he would stand next to her. As Naruto closed his eyes, he thought about going on missions with Avery. Maybe she would be the key in bringing Sasuke back.

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Author note: These were some of my favorite fights! And Avery taunting Gaara was just so much fun! Thank you guys for all the views and everything! I really love this fic and I waited so long to post because I didn't know how it would go over. Please let me know what you think! :)


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any characters.

For the fights in this chapter she will use some spells cause she is a witch and such. It'll explain what they do. :D

 _Chapter Seven_

Avery arrived at the training hall ten minutes early and walked straight inside. She sat down on the step where Yamato had been standing the day prior to referee. She closed her eyes and thought about the events of the previous day. She won three out of four matches and used a lot of her energy. She wasn't even sure she was back to full strength. She took a breath and looked up when she heard someone approaching her.

"Hey Naruto," she said smiling.

"Hey Avery, ready for today?"

"As ready as it gets."

He sat next to her and bumped her with his shoulder. "Are you nervous?"

"Yeah, but I was nervous yesterday too and look how that turned out," she said with a coy smile. "I do feel kinda bad about Neji and Yamato though."

"They're fine," Naruto said. "I am sure they don't hold anything against you."

"And if I beat you today? Will you hold it against me?"

"Of course not," he said smiling. "But you're not going to beat me."

"We'll see about that Uzumaki."

Everyone else showed up around the same time, some of them coming over to say hello to Avery. Once again, everyone was there before a certain silver haired Jonin.

"So sorry I am late guys! I got lost on the road of life!"

Tsunade shook her head and moved on. "Alright as we all know we have two matches to get through today and I have a feeling the next one could take a while. So we are going to get started now, Naruto and Avery."

The two, who were still sitting together on the step, stood and walked to the center of the room. They shook hands like every match the day before; and then took their positions on the floor. Everyone else went back up to the balcony except Yamato.

"Alright let's try not to throw me today okay, Avery?" he teased.

"I'll do my best Yamato," she rolled her eyes.

"Alright then you guys can start."

Three out of four fights the day before had been against people who were passive or defensive fighters. Lee had been the exception. Avery had had a feeling the day before that they couldn't all be passive or defensive. There had to be another one that was going to run at her and attack right off the bat.

And here he is; though he didn't exactly run at her alone.

"Shadow clone jutsu!" he shouted after crossing his index and middle finger of each hand together. As soon as the words were off his tongue, two other Narutos showed up and came running at Avery. She planted her feet and threw her hand out to blow up the right one, then turned and threw the left one. When she turned back he had made three more and he was coming at her with a blue whirring ball in his hand.

"Rasengan!" he shouted as he came at her.

"Rasengan," she called and held her hand out.

The rasengan ball disappeared from Naruto's hand and appeared in Avery's. She held onto it for only a few seconds before it fizzled out in her hand. Naruto had continued at her, momentum not allowing him to stop, and she waved her arm and threw all four Narutos back across the room, the three fakes and the real tumbling over himself.

He stood and brushed himself off. He looked determined and walked forward a little. "Alright, I probably should have seen that coming," he admitted. "But I am not done," he smirked and put his fingers in the same position, "multi-shadow clone jutsu."

Instantly over a hundred shadow copies of Naruto appeared all around Avery. She turned to see them all with a shocked expression. They started coming at her a few at a time and she threw herself into them: kicking, throwing them, and blowing them up, everything she could to get through them all.

Then she got an idea, but it was a power she didn't use very often. She closed her eyes for a second and then threw her hands out the same way she did to blow them up; but instead of combusting, they all froze in place. She was able then to take each out separately and turn back to Naruto who was already going for the next attack. It was too late for Avery to react so she orbed out of the way.

When she reappeared, she did in a shimmer of bright red that Naruto had never seen. He watched her as she tilted her head with a cocky smirk. Naruto shook his head and thought about what he could do. Shadow clones weren't getting him anywhere just yet, but he knew if he kept doing shadow clones that he wouldn't get her. He needed to throw her off with something else.

He took out a few shuriken and threw them before running off to the side. While Avery was distracted blocking those, he made another shadow clone that he transformed into a giant shuriken and threw it. As soon as his giant shuriken clone left his hands he ran at her himself.

Avery turned just in time to see the shuriken coming at her and she jumped out of the way and ran at Naruto. However the clone turned back into Naruto and went to throw a kick at her that hit her and sent her flying. But before she hit the ground she disappeared in the bright red light shimmer. She reappeared behind him and blew up the clone before running at the real one.

Naruto fought her off hand to hand, only taking one punch that he didn't manage to block. He jumped away from her and made a handful of clones again preparing his Uzumaki Barrage. However as soon as they all got into position, he heard Avery's voice coming from the rafters of the building.

" _Cecidimus umbra exemplum,_ " Avery said from the rafters of the building. Once the words left her lips, all of Naruto's shadow clones dropped dead, leaving only him standing there. Her astral projection smiled and threw him across the room.

He got back to his feet and looked at his clones, all of them on the ground unmoving. He recalled the jutsu and they all disappeared. He tried to make another one and it also dropped dead. "Avery!"

"It will only last for an hour, relax," she called to him from the rafters.

"And if you're up there, who am I looking at?"

"I can make a clone too Naruto," both the Averys said together. The real Avery orbed from the rafters and appeared behind Naruto throwing him toward the astral projection. The projection came over and helped Naruto to his feet. Then the two Averys came over and kissed his cheek together.

Naruto shook his head and looked down before he kicked the astral Avery's legs out from under her. She vanished before she hit the ground. He turned to the real Avery with a kunai in his hand and attacked. She jumped back and took a kunai of her own out and fought with him. She jumped back when he got a fairly good swipe in but only ended up catching the front of her shirt, cutting it so there was a slash in her shirt across her abdomen.

He stood and he wove a few hand signs, "Since you won't let me use my shadow clones anymore," he said and then bit his thumb hard enough to draw blood. "Summoning jutsu!" he called, pressing his palm to the ground. A few lines of black markings appeared on the ground before…POOF

A cloud of smoke appeared. When it cleared there were two exceptionally large toads sitting there. One was orange with blue markings and the other was yellow with orange markings.

"I'll just have to use alternative methods, ready Gamatatsu?"

"Naruto, that's not necessary," Tsunade called, laughing as she held the heel of her hand to her forehead.

 _The world's number one hyperactive knucklehead ninja is at it again,_ Kakashi thought as he rolled his eyes.

Avery's eyes were wide with shock. "What the hell you can just summon huge toads?" She looked up to where Gaara was standing, his head shaking a little with amusement clear on his face.

 _Right, she would not have known about summonings._

"Hey we are ninja toads missy!" Gamakichi said indignantly.

"Do you have any snacks, Naruto?" Gamatatsu asked.

"Sorry, not today. And apparently I don't need you guys this time," he said shrugging his shoulders.

"MAN! You summon us for nothing! Ugh!" Gamakichi grumbled.

"And no snacks…darnit!"

"Come on Gamatatsu, we'll find you a snack somewhere else," and then they were gone.

"Come on Grandma Tsunade! They get mad when I summon them for no reason!"

"Yeah well, I was a few minutes from calling it anyway; we'll call it a draw."

"Alright," Naruto grumbled.

Avery smiled at her friend. He was so unpredictable; she figured that she would often find herself laughing around him. She had so far in their friendship.

"Alright Shikamaru," Tsunade said.

Naruto went up to the balcony and Shikamaru came down. He walked over to her and held his hand out to her, "get ready to go down."

"Are you giving yourself advice? That's cute," she said taking his hand and holding it in place.

Shikamaru glared at her and took a breath, "I guess we'll find out wont we?" he said with a sharp smile.

"I have a prediction of how this is gonna go, you wanna hear it? It ends with you on your back, defenseless," she teased, a cocky smile on her face.

"Damn woman, let's just get this over with."

"Fine by me shadow boy."

They took their positions and looked at each other. Yamato rolled his eyes and said, "Alright begin."

Avery ran at Shikamaru before he could start throwing his shadows. She attacked him and he moved to the side. He moved far enough that he started throwing his shadows. Avery danced out of the way; avoiding the shadows gracefully. She did back flips and hopped when she needed to in order to get right where she wanted.

When she was ready she let him catch her. He let out a cocky victory sound and made her face him. He made them walk toward each other and smiled, "what now?"

Avery gave him a look, _like you don't remember what happened last time…geez,_ she thought right before she threw him with her eyes. He went flying back into the wall just behind him and she put her hands out in front of her. " _Chakra catenum murum._ "

Strands of chakra came from Shikamaru's wrists and bound him to the wall. He tried to move his hands but he was stuck. He glared back at Avery, who had a smug look on her face.

"How are you gonna make shadows now?" she sneered. She laughed then at the look on his face.

"Shikamaru?" Tsunade called.

"No! I'm not done!" he protested, struggling against his bindings.

"What are you gonna do? You're stuck shadow boy," Avery moved closer to him as she teased him.

When she got close enough, Shikamaru kicked with all his strength and caught her right in the stomach. She fell back on the ground and he braced his feet against the wall and pushed hard until the bindings broke. He tucked his head to his chin and rolled forward once he landed on the ground.

Avery jumped up and away from him as he started to use his shadows again. She thought of a trick her mother used to do a lot and though she had never done it, it seemed like a good time to try.

" _Exemplum Virtutis Amicus! Arena effingo!_ " she cried, holding up her hands. A cloud of sand like blue smoke appeared.

"Hey wait a second, that's your move!" Kankuro said from the balcony. His voice was of awe and confusion as his brother let out an impressed noise.

Avery struggled to control the sand-smoke, swirling it around Shikamaru as he made his shadows. But he just ignored it and kept going with his shadows, causing Avery to have to keep jumping away.

 _There's gotta be something else…how does Kankuro fight?_ She remembered asking Kankuro once about the scrolls he had been carrying with him.

" _Oh, I am a puppet master. I use chakra strings to control puppets I made."_

 _Puppets!_

She disbanded the sand spell and tried another one before she could get caught. " _Exemplum Virtutis Amicus! Pupa effingo_ ," a similar cloud of blue smoke appeared, but in the shape of one on Kankuro's puppets instead.

"AND THAT'S MINE!"

Avery rolled her eyes and ignored Kankuro as she made the puppet charge Shikamaru. He rolled out of the way just in time, but stood and faced it, "what the hell? It's just smoke right? It'll just-"

Shikamaru was cut off as the smoke puppet punched him in the face. He reeled and then jumped away. "Alright, fine." He weaved his shadow signs and started trying to catch it, but the shadows just went through the puppet.

Avery ran at Shikamaru while he was distracted with the smoke puppet. She kicked his feet out from under him and he hit the ground hard. Together, she and the puppet held Shikamaru's legs and arms down.

" _Chakra…Catenum…murrum…_ " Avery said weakly and once again, strands of Shikamaru's chakra erupted from his wrists and ankles, binding him to the floor.

Avery sat back then, breathing really hard. She could feel loose wisps of her blue hair sticking to the sweat on her forehead. She hadn't realized how much energy those spells, especially the last few, had taken from her. She ran out of control over the smoke puppet and it disappeared.

Shikamaru struggled against his bonds before he gave up and went limp. "Damn it…"

Everyone came down from the balcony and over to where Shikamaru was tied down and Avery was sitting. Naruto knelt beside Avery and she collapsed against him. "Are you alright?"

"Energy…Low…" she said panting lightly.

Shikamaru's dad and Asuma came over and looked at him, both smiling. "Son?"

"Yeah shut it," he said rolling his eyes.

"Someone cut him out," Tsunade said with amusement in her voice.

"I'll get it," Avery said waving her hand and disbanded the spell. She made a sound of pain and fell back against Naruto.

"Okay, you're done," Naruto said and helped her to her feet.

"Avery, you did very well yesterday and today," Tsunade said looking at her. She smiled and turned to Gaara, "Lord Kazekage, what do you think?"

"I think she would be a valuable asset to missions. She should definitely be able to go," he said smiling. "She has an impressive array of abilities."

Tsunade nodded and turned to Kakashi and Yamato, "what do you two think?"

"I agree with the Kazekage," Kakashi said with a shrug.

"Me too," Yamato nodded.

"Alright, well in that case, Avery you're officially put on the mission roster. I will probably pair you with Naruto's team since you already have a relationship with them, so Team Kakashi, you just gained a new member."

"Sounds good to me," Kakashi said.

"Alright, everyone is dismissed," Tsunade said and turned to leave. "Oh, and Shikamaru?"

"Yeah?" he said after he got to his feet and rubbed the back of his head.

"You owe Avery dinner."

"What!? No way!"

"Yes way, I made one of the boys that lost take her out yesterday, now since you lost today, you get to."

"What about Naruto!?

"He didn't lose, they tied."

Shikamaru rolled his eyes and shoved his hands in his pockets.

Avery laughed weakly, still leaning against Naruto, "if it makes you feel any better, we can make it a group thing."

Gaara rolled his eyes at the shadow user, complaining about having to take a pretty girl out to dinner. Just because he lost to her, it was ridiculous. Though it made Gaara feel like more of a man for wanting to take her out himself rather than make a fuss about it.

"No, we don't need to make it a group thing, I'll take you," he sighed. He was visibly frustrated, but he couldn't let Gaara outdo him. Shikamaru knew the man had taken her out just the two of them the night before and he was not going to let it be any different with him.

"Alright," Avery said with an amused smile. She had been leaning against Naruto long enough and stepped away from him. She looked at her watch and smiled, "it's about dinner time now, and I am hungry. Do you want to just go now?"

"Yeah alright," he said and turned away. Though she definitely heard something about _troublesome woman_ huffed under his breath.

She walked with Shikamaru, leaving everyone else behind as they all left the training hall. He looked over at his dinner companion when he realized he had no idea where she wanted to eat.

"Let's get dumplings," she said then, as if she read his mind. She smiled at him and reached up to take her hair out of the ponytail she had it in.

"Alright," he said trying not to stare at her blue hair falling over her shoulders.

They wandered together to the dumpling shop and ordered their dumplings and some tea. Sitting together at one of the picnic tables in the tent, Avery crossed her feet under her seat and yawned a little.

"Tired, huh?"

"Yeah, I used a lot of energy the last two days and I didn't regenerate fully last night," she said. She picked up one of the two sticks of dumplings she had gotten and started nibbling on the first one.

"So that was a different language you were speaking today," Shikamaru said. It wasn't a question but Avery knew he was looking for an answer.

"It was Latin," she said simply. "I can cast spells if I can think of one for the situation, though they are usually in Latin. The longer spells I have in my family's book are in English though. The one I used against you, to mimic Kankuro's puppet that was a move my mother used a lot."

"That was fairly impressive."

"It's a spell to borrow abilities, though it has limitations clearly. It wasn't his actual puppet so anything his actual puppets can do like spit poison and crap, that wouldn't do. But it was a great distraction."

"I'll say," he said sounding rather disgruntled.

"Are you mad I beat you?"

"Not mad, maybe a little bummed and disappointed. I haven't sparred with a woman since my Chunin exams, and I beat them both then. Well sort of, I forfeit against Temari."

"What? Why?"

"I had caught her in my shadow, outsmarting her, but at the time I had used most of my chakra to do it. That was a few years ago now. I honestly know my best fighting feature is that I am smart. I am an excellent strategist, and I formed my strategy as she was forming hers. It's like shogi; I always try to stay a few steps ahead of my opponent."

"I see," she said as she finished her first dumpling. "So you had managed to outsmart her, but knowing you wouldn't be able to really beat her, you forfeit instead."

"That's about it."

They ate in comfortable silence for a few minutes before Shikamaru looked up at her. "You saved Asuma because of me?"

She nodded slowly, "I wouldn't have even come to find you guys if I hadn't felt you."

"And I was the only one you felt? You didn't feel Asuma's fear? Or the other two guys?"

She shook her head, chewing on her bottom lip as she looked for the words. "Something about you…it overpowered me. It lured me in and I couldn't help but take the bait. I waited and watched, but when that one guy…"

"Hidan."

"Sure, him… when Hidan was about to kill Asuma, your emotions became so much that I didn't realize what I had done until I was on the roof with Asuma."

"Why did you run?"

"I didn't want to have to go with people I wasn't sure of. I didn't realize you were from the leaf village and I had intended to find the village myself so…"

"What about the other day? You were there watching us when we faced them again."

"I felt you again that day too. I recognized your emotions and your chakra immediately and once again I was attracted to it like a moth to a flame. I couldn't stay away."

"But all you did was watch then," he said, forgetting his dumplings and focusing on her.

"Yeah, I wasn't overwhelmed that time. I watched everything though. I was absolutely fascinated by the fights because you guys fight so differently than I do." Avery leaned on the table, pushing her last remaining dumpling ball away. "Naruto's jutsu was so amazing, it sucks he can't use it."

"It does, it must have been pretty powerful."

They fell silent for a few minutes, Shikamaru worked on eating his dumpling again. Avery was finished eating but instead just wrapped her hands around her cup of tea and sipped at it.

"I wonder how long it will be before I get dispatched on a mission."

"Naruto's team seems to go on missions fairly often, so it probably won't be too terribly long, to be honest," Shikamaru responded easily.

"Are missions always decided by teams?"

"Well, I figure ANBU missions are probably much different, but they are very secretive so I don't really know. As for our missions, each team has a set of ranks they can generally handle, and if there isn't a team for the mission, Tsunade will form one."

She nodded slowly, "So say, Naruto and I were good for a mission, but we needed someone like…Neji with us…?"

"Lady Tsunade would probably assign you to that mission with those people and a good fit captain. Generally it won't happen that way though. Sometimes multiple teams will get dispatched for the same mission. It depends on the mission really." He watched her with a smile, she was so beautiful.

She fell silent again, her eyes drooping as the exhaustion set in over her tea-soothed mind and full stomach.

"Let's get you home before you pass out," Shikamaru chuckled.

She nodded and stood going with him. She walked steadily next to him, which surprised him as sleepy as she had been at the table. He knew if he wanted to keep her talking he needed to ask her about something.

"You're going to miss Gaara and them huh?"

"Yes, I missed them a lot, and I will miss them again when they have to leave. Though I am happier here than I was in Suna; the heat was unbearable."

He smiled at that, she did seem like the kind of delicate flower that would wilt in the heat. He looked over at her and he reminded himself to ask. "What is the tattoo on your collarbone?"

"It's called a witches knot. It's an old Wiccan wives tale really but it was supposed to protect against evil. Most the members of my family had one though my mother didn't want me to get it. My aunt had taken me to get it done for my eighteenth birthday," she said touching it gently. It was on the left side of her body, just over her collarbone.

"And the symbol on your hand?" he asked noticing it was still there.

"It's called a Triquetra. It is my family's symbol, and I thought it would have gone away by now," she said tracing the extremely faded symbol with her thumb. "I'm starting to think it won't."

"You did say it showed up when one of your clan was in danger right?"

"Yes, why?"

"Maybe because you're the last one, it won't go away because being the last of the line is one of the most dangerous things."

She hadn't thought about it like that, though it made sense. She wouldn't mind it staying, being a decent reminder of what happened and what she went through. "Maybe so," she said, not having anything more to say on the subject.

Unlike Gaara, Shikamaru walked her to her door. When she invited him to come in he declined. "I have to get home, and if my mom knew I was in a girl's apartment unsupervised she would kill me. I am of course only seventeen."

"That's understandable."

He stepped closer to her and brushed her hair away from her cheek gently. His hand cupped her cheek as she leaned her head against it, and she closed her eyes. His other hand lifted to tilt her chin back as he gently pressed his lips to her cheek before he stepped back. He waited until she opened her eyes and looked at him before he smiled and said, "Goodnight Avery, sweet dreams."

Avery watched him walk away, her cheek tingling where his lips had touched it. She watched him until he was down the steps and around the corner before she unlocked her door and walked into her apartment. She wasn't sure she wanted to spend her time being distracted and dating now, especially when she had missions to be getting ready for. But she had decided Shikamaru was a definitely good distraction in case she ever changed her mind.

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Thank you all for the support and views! I would love to read what you all think! Please let me know! 3


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any characters.

Author notes: AVERY'S GOING ON A MISSION GUYS!

ALSO, MY BETA IS SUPER MAD AT ME FOR THIS CHAPTER.

I should probably also start warning there are spoilers from around episode 130 of shippuden. Read at your own risk.

Love all the support and views ya'll. Please comment and let me know what you guys think!

 _Chapter Eight_

Over the next couple of weeks, Avery trained with Naruto. They didn't spar much, but they each worked on harnessing their abilities together and usually ended up totally exhausted by the end. Sometimes Kakashi and Yamato would come out and watch, especially if Naruto was planning anything too strenuous. There were a few days that Avery and Naruto went out to the field with all intents to train, but just ended up sitting there talking to each other and learning more about each other.

It was on one of those days that Avery and Naruto were sitting in the field talking that they got the call for a mission. It would be Avery's first mission. They got up together and ran to meet up with everyone else in Tsunade's office.

They got the mission brief; Sasuke had killed Orochimaru and was now gathering a team to travel with. While everyone wanted to find Sasuke and bring him back to the village, it was obvious (to everyone that wasn't Avery) that Sasuke's main focus was his revenge against his brother. Their goal for the mission would be to detain Itachi Uchiha, if they could, they would also detain his partner Kisame Hoshigaki; though Itachi was their target. They all accepted their mission and got a travelling cloak as it was pouring when they were setting out to leave.

There were multiple people going on this mission. Their captains were Kakashi and Yamato, with Naruto, Sai, Sakura, Avery, Kiba, Shino, and Hinata. Avery was excited to get to go on such an important mission with them so early in her career. She stuck close to Naruto as they travelled, making sure she did her best to keep up.

After a while of travelling they all stopped and gathered together. The strategy was to each take a set of ninja hounds that Kakashi had summoned and split up. Kiba already had Akamaru and did not need another hound, but everyone else except Kakashi, Yamato, and Naruto took two ninja hounds each. Avery went with Kakashi as well and they took one ninja hound. With the goal in mind, everyone set out to search.

Then while searching, there was an explosion so vast everyone saw it from where they were. It went for miles and it destroyed everything in its wake. Avery watched it with the feeling of an unfamiliar chakra in the air.

"What on earth?"

"It looked like one of that Akatsuki's jutsu. Deidara," Kakashi said.

Avery turned to look at him, "Akatsuki? Like Hidan and Kakuzu?"

"Yes, and Itachi. Let's go check it out."

They ran out to where the site was and Avery was picking up on another chakra as they were approaching. When they got there they met up with Kiba and Akamaru, who had also come to investigate the explosion.

"There are a couple other faint scents here," Kiba was reporting to Kakashi. "One of them belongs to Sasuke."

Even Avery looked up at the mention of the name. She had heard it mentioned in the mission debrief, and Naruto had talked about him in the last couple weeks. Sasuke was the original third member of team 7 when Naruto and Sakura were younger. Sai had taken his place with team Kakashi. Though it had always seemed futile, Naruto had never stopped looking for Sasuke. His overall goal of course was to get to be as strong as Sasuke or stronger, and to bring him home to the leaf.

"Is that the other chakra I am sensing?" Avery asked. She extended her empathy, but couldn't feel anyone in the immediate area besides who was standing near her.

"Probably, he was definitely here," Kiba said.

"Can you sense anyone else around here?" Naruto asked Avery.

She shook her head, "No, I don't sense anyone around here except us."

Kakashi looked at Avery then with a look of challenge on his face. "How far can you extend that empathy?"

"Pretty far… Though I'm not exactly sure how far."

"Can you extend it as far as the village over that way?"

Avery turned and looked toward the village. It was pretty far away. She ran towards it, feeling them behind her and stopped when she got a good distance from the explosion site. After taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and stretched her empathy out.

"What am I looking for?"

No one said anything right away. When someone did speak, it was Naruto, and he sounded hurt. "A desire for revenge."

Avery nodded and kept stretching as far as she could. When she reached the village there was a large influx of people's emotions added. Pain crossed her face and she gasped a little. She was not used to feeling the emotions of an entire village, when she could turn it off and aim it at people the way she could. She pushed forward anyway and continued to read the people in the little village. She could feel the pain in her head and knew it was showing on her face because she felt someone take her hand. Her breathing became ragged, and then right when she thought she was going to lose her stretch because of the pain…

Sasuke's emotions were dead, dark, and empty. She could almost feel what it would be like to look into his cold, expressionless eyes and it sent a shiver through her body. She could tell that he was injured. She could feel the fatigue and pain he was feeling in her own body, to the point where she actually cringed and shied away from the way she was standing, looking for relief. She could also feel his hatred, which was what made him so cold and dark.

"I found him, he's in that village. He's injured, he definitely fought here," Avery said opening her eyes and relief crossing her face as she let go of her stretch on her empathy and turned it back off within her.

"Could you lead us to him?"

"I could try," she said but once she took a step, she realized how much Sasuke and everyone else's emotions in the village took from her and she fell against Naruto.

"Woah, are you okay?" he asked as he helped her steady herself.

"I am not used to purposefully feeling that many emotions at once," she said wiping her brow. She tentatively tried again to take a step and managed to stand without Naruto. "Come on we have to get moving," she said and started running toward the village.

They only got half the rest of the way there before she tripped. Kakashi helped her up and sat her down. "No," he said when she was trying to get up, "just rest a minute."

Avery sighed; she wasn't doing well her first mission. She was already a burden and unable to keep going. She took a shaky breath but only allowed them to make her stay for five minutes before she kept going. They got to the village and they saw Sakura walking through the village. The hounds Sakura had with her had said they could smell Sasuke's scent, but hadn't been able to pinpoint it. Avery got to the inn where she felt Sasuke and felt for him again, but he was gone.

"He's not here anymore," she said looking up.

"I can smell him, this way," Kiba said leading them in the direction he could smell Sasuke going. They followed the scent back out of the village and followed it until Kiba and Akamaru stopped suddenly.

"What is it?" Yamato asked.

"His scent has split up," Kiba said looking around. "It's spread out really far."

"How could that be?"

"There," Kiba said looking at a bird that was sitting on a tree. Tied to its leg was a piece of an old shirt.

"I'll make shadow clones, just tell me where to go," Naruto said and he and Kiba got to work following the scents.

Avery sat down on the ground while they were following that lead and closed her eyes. She tried to sense Sasuke again, though she wasn't sure her empathy power was the way to do it. She knew that one of her other powers she received from her father was the ability to sense others from their energy or chakra and life source. She tried to extend that power, thinking since she could sense chakra in the air; she should be able to sense their chakra in their bodies.

The problem she was running into was she had sensed Sasuke's chakra so briefly she wasn't sure how to find it. If someone had told her to find Naruto? No problem. She decided to try empathy and pushed out in the direction the scents were going. By the time she started to feel like she was getting light headed from pushing it out blindly, Naruto found something and they all went running.

However they didn't get very far before someone stopped them. A man in the same Akatsuki robe and an orange mask with one eye hole; but he was very different from the other Akatsuki members they had met. By this time everyone was together again, trying to get to Sasuke; and this guy was in the way.

"Oh no, nine against one? What bad luck!" the man said in a loud, rather obnoxious voice.

Avery's nerves were on high, this was her first time facing a real opponent and she wasn't sure what to expect. So instead she watched at first. The group tried to get passed him, but every time someone attacked him, they missed. He was just too fast.

No…that wasn't it.

"Kakashi, they aren't missing," Avery said.

"What?"

"They're going through him," she said.

After that they just tried to pass by him. However he managed to keep them all back one by one with his ability to go through it seemed like any object. Avery had even tried moving him with her mind and it didn't work after the first time. She figured it only worked the first time because he hadn't been expecting it.

They managed to get a little closer, but not close enough. This Akatsuki member, whose name was Tobi, was in their way and it was really pissing Naruto off. He had no patience for this and he wanted to get passed this guy in order to get to Sasuke.

Avery stepped forward to confront their enemy again. She blew up the branch he was standing on and he fell. After he fell Naruto lurched forward with Avery hot on his heels, but they once again ended up passing right through him in their attack. Deciding on another tactic, Avery grabbed Naruto's arm and orbed. However since she didn't know where Sasuke actually was, she just went as far as she could manage passed the Akatsuki guy and reappeared.

They were closer to Sasuke now. Avery was closer.

Avery screamed and clutched her head. Being closer to the fight, she was within range of the large emotions Sasuke and Itachi were putting out in their fight, and it was more intense than she had ever felt in her entire life. Sasuke's cold hatred felt like it was burning holes in her heart and head while Itachi was on the opposite end of the spectrum. He was full of determination and worry for his brother. Sasuke was killing her, his emotions were more than Avery could handle.

"WHY DID YOU DO IT? DAMN YOU," Avery screamed out the words in Sasuke's mind, turning toward Naruto. As Sasuke attacked his elder brother, she could feel her hands clawing at her skull.

Seeing Avery this way almost scared Naruto, but at the same time he realized what it meant. _We're really close to them…_

She couldn't break off, couldn't breathe through the overpowering emotions of the Uchiha boys. She fell to her knees as the pain tore through her like hot knives in the form of Sasuke's rage. Her nose began to bleed as well as her ear as her empathy went haywire. She had used a lot of energy on searching for Sasuke and trying to help them get passed Tobi, she couldn't take the emotions coming from the boys.

And then they stopped, just like that. As soon as they stopped she crumpled to the ground and her eyes closed. She struggled to stay conscious, breathing as even as she could. Tobi was gone, but as far as Avery could tell, so was Sasuke. Yamato came and helped Avery up; she leaned against him as some of the group surged forward to try to find where Sasuke was.

"He's gone," she whispered. "I can't feel him anymore."

"Can you walk?"

"If you help me I can," Avery groaned.

They caught up to everyone else. The site was destroyed from the battle. The Uchiha boys' chakra hung in the air and there were black flames burning around the structure that had served as the stage for the fight. Both boys were gone, but who had won was a mystery. Avery stood and stepped away from Yamato, walking toward the middle of the ground where the fight had been. She knelt down and touched the ground, trying to sense what had happened.

Another power she had never actually had been able to pull off was premonitions; the ability to see the past or future. It was a power her grandmother had been able to use and her mother had been able to use it in rare occasions. However, Avery had never been able to do it.

She took many deep breaths and tried to harness her mother. Her right hand, where the fading mark of her family was still visible, began to burn as she focused her energy into this. Then finally she saw it, the end of the battle, a flash.

"Oh fuck," she gasped as she fell backward. Naruto caught her before she hit her head on the ground.

"What happened?"

"Sasuke won," she breathed before she blacked out.

Naruto held her as she went limp in his arms. He looked up at Kakashi, who had come over to see Avery.

"She said Sasuke won before she blacked out," he said. "She's exhausted."

"She did really well today and was a huge help to the mission. We should get her home," Kakashi said. "Unfortunately, our mission is over."

With that they all started heading back to the village. Along the way, Yamato took Naruto, Sakura, and Sai for a separate mission they had received word on and the rest kept going back to the village.

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When Avery woke again she was on a bed in an unfamiliar apartment. She rubbed her head with the heel of her hand as she remembered what happened. She had been awful during the mission and felt terrible for being so useless. Her first mission and she felt like a total failure. She didn't even remember coming back to the village. The only thing she knew for sure was she had no idea whose apartment, and bed, she was in.

The room was small and impeccably clean, with light grey walls and hardwood floor. There was a desk and a dresser, but there weren't anything on them. Aside from the small corkboard on the wall with notes and papers attached to it, there wasn't anything on the walls. She looked behind her and saw an alarm clock and a few books as well as two pictures. Kakashi was in each of them, so she realized she must have been in Kakashi's apartment.

She carefully peeled back the covers, a green blanket with a shuriken pattern on it, and stepped out of the bed. She was still in her own clothes, the same clothes she had been in on the mission. She had been wearing a pair of black Capri's and a long sleeve maroon shirt. She hadn't found her look yet in the village; maybe she would have to get one of the girls to help her find it. She stepped out of the bedroom carefully, and she tip toed around the corner.

"You're awake," Kakashi said without turning around. He was making dinner for himself and his house guest. He hadn't been sure when she would wake up but figured he would have food ready for her when she did. "Food won't be ready for a bit longer, you can use the shower if you want," he said. He was more casual than she had seen him, no vest and instead of long sleeves he was in a tank top that still had the mask that came up over his mouth and nose. With his arms bare it was obvious how much muscle tone he had in just his arms. He wasn't wearing his headband, and instead just held his left eye closed.

Avery nodded and walked back into the bedroom and into the bathroom. She noticed he had set out an extra set of clothes, a towel, and a wash cloth for her. She stripped out of her clothes saturated with dried sweat and folded them into a neat pile. After turning the water on and warming it up, she stepped under the stream and closed her eyes, letting the hot water relax her muscles. Exhausting all of her energy always made her muscles sore, like she worked out for the first time after not working out for a long time.

When she decided she had relaxed long enough, she found some shampoo and washed her hair. She was reading the shampoo Kakashi uses and smiled, it would make her hair soft. She washed it out and conditioned it before she washed her body with the generic soap Kakashi had in his shower. She finished up and got out; drying her body off before she wrapped her hair up in the towel. She dressed in the clothes Kakashi set out for her and walked timidly back out into the kitchen.

He turned when he heard her quiet footsteps. She still had her hair wrapped in the towel, and was wearing the plain long sleeved black shirt and black sweats he had set out for her. The pants and sleeves were a little long on her, but it was better than her having to change back into her dirty clothes.

"Are you hungry?" he asked as he set a plate out in front of her. He had made some grilled chicken with pickled cabbage and rice. He set his plate on the other side of the counter and picked up his chopsticks.

"Thank you," she said softly. It smelled and looked wonderful, and she was indeed starving. She picked up her own chopsticks and began eating quietly. She kept her eyes down, like she wasn't supposed to see Kakashi without his mask. She knew he would have to lower it in order to eat.

"How are you feeling?" he asked when he finished eating and had replaced his mask.

She made a face as she pushed her rice and vegetables around on her plate. "Disappointed," she finally admitted and tried to focus on eating.

"Why disappointed?"

"I…I just feel like I failed the team on the mission," her eyes stung with tears threatening her composure.

Kakashi leaned forward on his elbow on the table. He was searching her face with his one eye. "I don't know what would make you think that, personally I thought you were incredibly helpful and selfless."

She finally looked up at him then. "I felt totally useless. I struggled to keep moving forward after I had originally found Sasuke, which caused us to lose him. I tried to get Naruto and I passed the weirdo Akatsuki dude and couldn't handle Sasuke and Itachi's emotions," she sighed then and calmed herself down. "Then I blacked out! The only reason I am back here is because someone brought me. I am rather shocked I didn't wake up in a hospital again."

"I figured I am not the only one that hates hospitals. And coming from someone who has suffered a fair amount of chakra exhaustion and spent more than my fair share of time in the hospital; I know I don't like waking up there after a mission." Kakashi's expression was sympathetic. "As for the rest of it, you helped find Sasuke, and that was amazing. The ' _weird Akatsuki guy_ ' most likely would have stopped you anyway with how quickly he was moving between us all. He was determined not to let us get to Sasuke."

She sighed and looked down. She set her chopsticks down, deciding she was done eating. "I just felt like I should have done better," she chewed on her lip nervously.

Kakashi reached over and made her look at him, "you did great, don't beat yourself up."

She nodded and smiled, "Thanks, I will try to do better in the future."

"Everyone always tries to do better, you'll be great," he said releasing her face. "When you are finished I'll walk you home."

She nodded and took the towel off her head. She shook her hair out and combed through it with her fingers. After collecting her dirty clothes and getting her shoes on, she followed Kakashi out the door and walked close to him as she lead the way to her apartment.

"How long was I out?"

"About fifteen hours, we got back to the village late last night," he had his hands resting in his pockets as they walked. "Yamato took Sakura, Sai, and Naruto on a separate mission on the way back, so it was just Kiba, Hinata, and Shino that came back with us. I am not sure when the rest will be back."

"Ah, good to know so I don't try to go bug Naruto."

"Yeah, they may not be back for another day or two."

She nodded and looked at the ground as she walked. She could have gone with them if she hadn't been so useless.

"Lady Tsunade requested you go see her when you woke up, but I am sure you can wait until tomorrow."

Avery nodded; hoping that she wouldn't have seen the mission report and decided Avery wasn't cut out for missions. She stayed quiet through their walk, hugging her folded clothes to her chest. When they reached her apartment, she turned and said a quick goodbye to Kakashi.

"Let me know if you need anything," Kakashi said. "Chakra exhaustion or energy or whatever, it is nasty to deal with sometimes."

"Thank you, I will, and I'll bring you back your clothes soon."

"Don't worry about it, those are clothes I outgrew when I was sixteen," he said chuckling. "You can keep them to sleep in or something."

"Alright, goodnight," she said and walked into her apartment and shut the door. She tossed her dirty clothes on the floor in the corner and immediately went to her bed. Even though she had slept all day, she knew she needed more rest and it wasn't soon after she laid down that her eyes closed and she was asleep.

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"Lady Tsunade, you wanted to see me?" Avery asked nervously as she walked in the Hokage's office. She had been dreading coming in here all morning, sure that Tsunade was going to say she wasn't fit for missions.

"Avery, come in," Tsunade said setting her pen aside and looking up at Avery. "I have a mission for you if you'll accept it."

"A…a mission!?" she asked incredulously. She was positive she couldn't have heard right. "But I was so awful the last mission."

"That's not what I heard," Tsunade said. "The mission report said you were very helpful and that you have sensory potential," she said while looking at the mission report.

"Really?" Avery said, taking a seat across from Tsunade's desk.

"Here," Tsunade said smiling.

"I can read this?"

"Sure, it was your mission."

Avery took the report and opened it slowly. She looked over the areas that didn't matter and read the notes Kakashi wrote at the bottom. She smiled seeing that everything he had been telling her the night before was in there and that he recommended her for future missions. She handed the mission report back to Tsunade and took a breath, "So what is the mission you have for me?"

"It's a solo, which is going to be a little risky since you are so new to this. However, I am counting on your abilities being different enough that you'll go undetected."

Avery nodded as her heart raced.

"It will also need to utilization of your orbing," she said waiting for Avery to say whether or not that would be a problem. When Avery just nodded she continued, "Jiraiya went on a very dangerous mission in the hidden rain. I trust his judgment of course but the mission was extremely risky and I haven't heard from him which concerns me."

She handed Avery a map and showed her where the hidden rain was. "I know orbing to a place you haven't been will be difficult, but I was hoping if you focused on Jiraiya you'd be able to do it."

Avery had met Jiraiya a few times during the time she had been in the village. He was Naruto's teacher and Naruto really looked up to him. He was incredibly funny, and also an enormous perv; but he was also a really good person. Avery had tapped into his emotions one of the times he had been around. The love he had for Naruto had almost made Avery cry from feeling it. She knew, for Naruto, she had to do this.

"I understand," Avery said as she stood. She was filled with a determination to do this. "I will do my best," she said looking at Tsunade for any last instructions.

Tsunade nodded, "The Hidden Rain is extremely private, it is crucial you are not caught. Good luck."

Avery left Tsunade's office and ran back to her apartment to gather her things. She looked at the scroll of instructions Tsunade had given her before she tucked it in her pack and ran out of her apartment. She needed something before she could go.

"Kakashi!" she called knocking on his door.

"Yes?" his voice came from behind her.

"Oh god!" she turned around and smacked his shoulder. "Why would you do that?"

"Cause I can't scare anyone else, it's a village full of ninja," he smiled wickedly. "What did you need?"

"I need clothes. I stand out too much in my clothes, I have wanted to find something new so I fit in but I really need it now so that if anyone does see me on this mission I won't stand out."

"See? She gave you your own mission," Kakashi teased her.

"Yeah, yeah I am an idiot. Kinda gotta go though," she said, practically hopping in place from excitement and trying to hurry.

"Right and you came to me for this because?"

"Because I didn't really know who to go to, Sakura's on a mission and Ino is away with her family," Avery was laughing now. "You're right it's ridiculous that I came to you but help me!"

Kakashi rolled his eyes and laughed, "Come on I actually think I have something."

Kakashi took her into his apartment and walked into his room. After he fiddled around in his closet for a few minutes, he came out with a box. "This should fit you, I would imagine."

Avery took the box and opened it to reveal a dark burgundy, short sleeve, short kimono style dress with a navy blue sash and matching navy blue armguards. It also had a pair of mesh shorts and a mesh undershirt. He also handed her a pair of toeless black boots that came up to just under her knees.

After she dressed, she strapped her holster to her left leg before walking out to see Kakashi waiting for her in his living room. "Well?"

"It looks good," he said cheerfully.

"And…you have a box with a woman's outfit because?" she asked confused. "Was it for your girlfriend or something?"

"Ah…no," he said trying not to laugh. "It was originally for Iruka's girlfriend, but then they broke up he gave it to me as a joke, so I hung onto it." He decided to ignore the fact that he didn't really have an interest in many women.

"Well, I guess it worked out. You don't mind giving it to me?"

"What the hell do I need it for?"

"Good point," she turned to head for the door.

"Hold up…here"

Avery turned to see Kakashi handing her a ninja band. It was the same metal plate with the leaf on it on a black band. It was long enough to wrap around her waist, so that's where she put it. "Thank you," she said smiling. "I really feel part of the village now. Unless I can't keep it," she looked at him with doubt in her eyes.

"I was supposed to give it to you before the last mission, I forgot."

She rolled her eyes and smiled, "Well better late than never I suppose."

He nodded and gently pushed her toward the door, "go on, you have a mission."

That she did, she walked out of Kakashi's apartment and ran toward the entrance of the village. She wanted to get out of the village before she started trying to find Jiraiya. Once she was outside the village and fairly far away, she slowed and started trying to sense Jiraiya.

Knowing where the hidden rain village was did help. She knew what direction to sense in. She sat with her eyes closed, searching for him, and the second she felt his chakra she orbed, not knowing exactly where she was aiming.

When she opened her eyes she was in the rain, out in the middle of nowhere it seemed. She looked around as her hair started to fall in her face. Pushing it to the side, she noticed a small toad on the ground. It was Jiraiya's jutsu, his chakra, which was what she had sensed to bring her here. He had to be here somewhere.

She walked quickly down the street, not running so she didn't call attention to herself. Though she figured girls may not like to be in the rain, she just didn't want to look too urgent. Following the trail she could feel his chakra going in, she masked her own presence and pressed forward. She didn't have a very good feeling about this.

When she reached the end of the trail, she was in a large building with a lot of pipes and tons of water. She could hear something and was trying to figure out where it was coming from without giving herself away. She crept around the corner, staying close to the wall, until she saw people. Staying hidden, she peered out to see what was happening.

There were five Akatsuki, all with different variations of hairstyle with the same red color, with the exception of the one that had no hair. They were all men as well of different sizes and they all had a ton of black pegs sticking out of multiple places in their faces. In front of them, was Jiraiya with a frog on each of his shoulders.

It looked like Jiraiya was losing, whatever the mission was. Whoever they were, they must have been strong. It was also five on one. She couldn't quite hear what they were saying though, but it was not looking very good so far. She reached out her empathy, trying to figure out what was happening, how Jiraiya was feeling would determine her choice of action.

It was when she felt what he was feeling that she let out an audible gasp. He knew them, or at least one of them, but he was filled with a rage driven confusion. Something about their eyes, though she didn't remember seeing their eyes. She looked closer and her eyes widened realizing their eyes were weird. They were completely purple in color with six rings. She had never seen anything like it.

When the five Akatsuki look-a-likes launched toward Jiraiya, Avery cried out and tried to run to stop them. But she was too late. She watched everything happen almost as if in slow motion. Jiraiya was impaled multiple times with long rods and they had crushed his throat. She threw the five Akatsuki away from him as he finished a message on the back of the little green toad. He fell into the water then, and before Avery could get to him, he was gone.

She managed to get to him before the Akatsuki members could stop her. If she couldn't save him, she could at least bring his body back to the village. She grabbed his arm and blew up one of the Akatsuki members, but it ended up just knocking him backward into the others. Once she had Jiraiya and the toads he had with him, she orbed away from there.

In her hurry to get out of there, she realized she had not orbed to the village. She wasn't far off, but not there. She wasn't going to be able to carry him though, and she didn't really want to spend the energy to orb.

"Wait here, I'll return," the little green toad said. He disappeared and a few minutes later he reappeared with a much larger toad. Avery helped get Jiraiya's body on the toad's back and they walked the rest of the way to the village.

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"What are our plans moving forward?"

Tsunade sat behind her desk with her head in her hands. They knew the Akatsuki would be coming for Naruto at some point. As much as Tsunade would love to keep everything normal and let Naruto continue on like nothing is going on, there was a part of her that worried about him. "I am not sure, honestly. I know the elders would like me to hide him away, but I don't want that. And you know as well as I do it wouldn't happen."

Kakashi nodded, "He doesn't want to hide out. He wants to help. It would kill him if anyone got hurt while he was just hiding away."

"He's strong, he could really help us," Tsunade sighed sitting back in her chair. "Danzo would like nothing more than to have us shut him away."

"I don't really like to invest my time in giving a fuck about what Danzo wants. No offense lady fifth," Kakashi growled. He still hadn't really forgiven Danzo for everything that happened with Tenzou.

"I know you don't," she said sighing. "You know Yamato is never going back to him right?"

"Yeah, I know."

They both turned when the door opened. Avery came in the room with an upset, worried look on her face.

"Avery, you're back…how did…" Tsunade trailed off seeing Avery's face.

Avery just shook her head, "I was too late, ma'am. I was unable to save him."

Tsunade's heart dropped in her chest. Her childhood friend and Genin teammate; he was gone forever. "His body?"

"I brought his body back. Lord Fukusaku has some hints at intel for us as well," her eyes were glossy with tears she had been trying to suppress. "I am so sorry Lady Tsunade."

"It isn't your fault, Avery," Tsunade said. She stood. "We should probably tell Naruto."

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Author notes: My BETA is SOOOO mad about this chapter….

Beta: HELL YEAH I AM!

Author: AAAAAANYWAY. I hope you guys liked the drama and getting to see Avery growing in the world! Please let me know what you guys think! I love sharing this with you guys! :3


	9. Chapter 9

_DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters. If I did KAKAKSHI AND TENZOU WOULD BE CANON! I mean… yeah anyway._

 _ **WARNING:**_ _Spoilers! I don't know exactly what episodes… somewhere between 150-217 of Shippuden._

 _This is where the extremely canon writing really starts. A lot of this could contain spoilers and such but it has Avery added into it._

 _ENJOY!_

 _Chapter Nine_

Time passed by in almost a blur. They had a funeral for Jiraiya after telling Naruto what happened. He hadn't taken the news well and Avery couldn't help feeling responsible for not getting to him fast enough. If she hadn't come back from the mission totally out of energy she could have gone the day before. He would have been alive and she could have helped him fight. She should have been there sooner.

Lord Fukusaku had given them all the intel Jiraiya had gathered on his mission, including the dying message he had written on the little green ninja-toad's back. It was just a series of numbers though, and no one knew what they meant. He had also provided a small toad that had the body of one of the orange haired ninja, one Avery hadn't seen. Lord Fukusaku said they called themselves Pein.

It had been discovered that the black studs in their faces were actually also all over their bodies. They were chakra receiving rods; which made Avery wonder something only Lord Fukusaku could answer.

One afternoon while Naruto and Shikamaru were trying to figure out the message, she had gotten Tsunade to bring the little green frog to her office.

"What seems to be the worry Avery-Girl?"

"The Peins'…their eyes."

"The Rinnegan? What about it?"

"Jiraiya knew a boy with those eyes, but didn't recognize him as the Peins, correct?"

Lord Fukusaku was shocked to hear her saying this. He had not told them that, he had completely forgotten about that. "How did you know that? I had forgotten all about that."

"One of my abilities; I can feel and understand the emotions of others. That emotion was fairly dominant in him before he died," Avery said with a heavy sigh. "I was thinking about the body we have with the chakra receivers…what if the kid he knew with those eyes is controlling these other bodies?"

Both Lord Fukusaku and Tsunade looked at each other and then back at Avery like she was crazy. "Like controlling other people?" Tsunade asked

"No, with the intel Ibiki got from the two ninja he had trapped, I think they are dead bodies he's using."

Ibiki, a frightening man with tanned skin and two jagged scars across his face, was in torture and interrogation for Konoha. He had managed to uncover from the two hidden rain shinobi that they take dead bodies up to the tower Pein lives in. No one had ever seen him either, so that was extremely suspicious.

About then was when Shikamaru and Naruto had come in to share they had decoded the message. "The message is 'the real ones not among them,'" Naruto said.

"We aren't sure what that is supposed to mean though," Shikamaru said.

"Avery might have figured that part out," Tsunade said.

After that, Naruto went away from the village for some severe training with Lord Fukusaku. Avery had gone on a couple missions with Kakashi in the mean time and was starting to feel like she was flourishing in the village. She felt like she was high on Tsunade's list with the work she had put in being part of the village and missions. She paired her with Kakashi a lot and she didn't mind. He was pretty good at helping her understand everything.

She kept her new outfit as her go to wear for missions. When she was wandering around the village, or on her days off she just wore jeans or her pair of pants that were like what the Jounin wear with whatever shirt. She had asked Kakashi about his vest, but she knew she wouldn't get one. They signified what level the ninja were, and she wasn't a ninja.

When Pein attacked the village, it was chaos. The entire village was destroyed and Naruto came at the perfect time to save everyone. Literally everyone, when he had gone to confront the real Pein, he had been so moved by Naruto he had saved everyone that had been killed in the attack. Avery had been injured, but nothing terribly serious and was working with the hospital afterwards to try to help heal. Though Avery's power didn't work as well too long after the fact, she was doing her best to help out; almost draining her energy just about every day.

Most people had managed to salvage some of their things once they had found where their belongings had ended up in the destruction. Avery had managed to find her clothes and of course her family's book. The book protected itself and remained completely untouched; though Avery did not like the time it took her to find it. She would have to find another place to hide it until she got a new permanent place to live. Currently everyone was living in tents and it was just not where she wanted to keep it for very long.

Avery avoided Naruto at all costs though. She still felt so guilty about Jiraiya, she just couldn't face him. Sakura had kept her plenty busy at the hospital for the first week after the attack so she didn't need to worry about it. But past that, she just tried to avoid him.

The village was in disarray in another way as well; Lady Tsunade hadn't woken from overusing her chakra during the attack yet. With her being out, the village was wondering about having to appoint a new Hokage. Of course, most of the village wanted Kakashi, but the village elders had been convinced otherwise.

Danzo had been appointed as the sixth Hokage just in time for the Five Kage Summit; which as far as Avery could tell sounded like the most exciting board meeting of government there could ever be. Sasuke had attacked the hidden cloud and taken their tailed beast host. Avery realized it would have been like one of the other villages having a rogue ninja that came and stole Naruto and she was uncertain how to really feel about it. However, Naruto was beside himself.

"We have to do something about it," Shikamaru finally said as Ino sobbed uncontrollably into her hands. Everyone was gathered sans Naruto and Sakura; discussing the issue. Sasuke had been deemed an international criminal and was to be killed on sight. Naruto, of course, wouldn't hear anything of it.

"I keep trying to place myself in this situation as an impartial third party, but then I end up tapping into Naruto or Sakura's emotions and I can't," Avery said sitting next to Ino.

"This is the downside to that damn power," Shikamaru rolled his eyes and moved on with what he was saying. Eventually everyone had agreed; they needed to do something about Sasuke.

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It was hard for Avery to be around everyone while this was happening. Her empathy was going so haywire she felt drained most of the time. She knew she would need to get over her fear that Naruto was holding some kind of grudge against her that he was never holding and actually go talk to him. By the time she went and sought him out, he had gone to the Land of Iron to plead with the Raikage over Sasuke's life.

When she went to see Sakura about it, she was getting ready to go out to see Naruto about what was going on. Avery looked at Sai; his expression told her more than she could have guessed.

"I'll come too," Avery offered Sakura. An offer she graciously accepted and moved forward.

The group travelled quickly and quietly. No one actually knew what they were going out there for and every time Avery tried to get a read on Sakura's emotions, she was just met with solid determination. The group was Sakura, Lee, Kiba and Akamaru, Sai, and Avery. They made quick time getting to the Land of Iron, where it was snowing. It was there they met up with Kakashi, Yamato, and Naruto.

It wasn't until they got there that Avery finally got the read on what Sakura was about to do. Red flags went off in her head. _Sakura…bad idea…you're an idiot…_ she felt slightly bad about thinking Sakura was an idiot; but that couldn't be helped in this moment. She told Naruto she had feelings for him, that she loved him. Avery and Sai both stayed neutral to Sakura's confession; though the same could not be said for Lee and Kiba; even Yamato freaked out. Though Naruto saw through Sakura and when he told her off for it, she stormed off with the boys following close behind.

"Naruto," Avery said cautiously as she stayed behind.

"Hi Avery, how are you doing?" Naruto asked stepping forward and giving her a hug. It was a normal Naruto hug, she noticed. His hugs were always big and warm, ones that made her feel like she could just stay there and not have to worry for a while. She smiled when he pulled away and touched his face. He had become like a brother to her, she would do anything to protect and help him.

"You're not going to confess some fake love for me too right?" Naruto teased at Avery touching his face.

Ah, no…" she laughed gently, "But I am sorry I've been avoiding you," she said finally. "I have been feeling so guilty about not getting to Jiraiya soon enough to save him."

"I don't blame you for what happened you know," Naruto said. But before they could continue, Sai appeared behind them. It was just a clone, but Avery could still read him like he was really there.

Sai and Avery together told Naruto about their comrade's decision to deal with Sasuke themselves. In his shock, Naruto grabbed Sai's shoulders, demanding to know if Sakura really agreed to this. It was clear to even Avery that Sakura had made a sacrificial choice in this matter. The real question was if she could actually go through with it.

"Sakura came to clear you of the burden she placed on you to find Sasuke. By confessing her love, she hopes you won't stand in the way any longer," Sai explained calmly. His face and demeanor was completely void of emotion as he spoke.

"That means…it is likely Sakura is going to try and take care of Sasuke herself," Kakashi finally said.

"What? Is she insane?" Avery said looking to Sai for confirmation that his was her plan. He just nodded.

At that point, Gaara and his siblings had shown up to tell them about what happened at the summit. Avery smiled at him and he returned it briefly before he was forced to be serious. Sasuke had attacked the summit, something none of them were expecting. And Danzo's actions had been deemed serious enough that it was assumed he would not proceed in becoming the sixth Hokage.

"I'm not really apt to the idea of becoming Hokage," Kakashi complained lightly, but proceeded. "Though it's looking like I won't have a choice."

Gaara looked over Naruto with emotional turmoil written clearly on his face. He stepped forward and gripped Naruto's shoulder as he spoke on what was to be done about Sasuke. Gaara tried to appeal to Naruto's desire to become Hokage, however, Avery could feel immediately that Naruto's emotions were pulling away the more Gaara spoke. He brushed Gaara off at that point; he clearly didn't want to hear any more.

"We came to say what we needed to, we should get going. Let's go home, Gaara," Temari said. "Suna will move forward as if you'll become the Hokage Kakashi, please keep the communication open."

Kakashi nodded as the three sand ninja turned away. Gaara stopped before they could keep going, "I consider you a friend, Naruto. As a friend the only thing I can really say is it is up to you to determine what you can really do for Sasuke. He's not the same person you knew before, he does not care about you anymore." He stopped knowing that anything more he could have said would not be heard. They departed after that, leaving Avery and the three leaf ninja to decide where they move forward from here.

Naruto let out an agitated sigh, which was visible in the cold air. Then Avery let out the same agitated sigh because the strong hold Avery's empathy had on Naruto's emotions.

"Naruto," Yamato started to walk toward him, but Kakashi stopped him. They spoke among themselves for a moment then, but Avery was more focused on Naruto. His emotions were running her empathy haywire.

"Well now what?" Yamato asked.

"We need to get back to the village and report what is going on, and we also need to get Sakura," Kakashi said sighing.

"I will do my best to keep her away from Sasuke, but we really should go sooner than later," Sai's clone spoke up.

"Right," Kakashi said and then looked to Yamato. "I need you to take Naruto back to the village while I go after Sakura. I'll send my ninja hounds ahead of you with the news about the summit due to the urgency of the situation. Avery, are you coming with us?"

"Yes, I am coming with you," she said trying to tear herself away from Naruto. He hadn't said anything in a while, and Avery was worried about him. He took a step forward before he started to hyperventilate.

"Naruto, calm down!" Kakashi, Sai, and Yamato all started to try to calm him down.

Avery stepped toward him, but Naruto's hyperventilation was brought on by the emotions buzzing through him and it caused her to begin to hyperventilate as well. Naruto hit his knees in the snow then, and it wasn't until he collapsed and lost consciousness that Avery managed to calm her own breathing.

"Are you alright?" Kakashi asked her.

"Yeah, I am fine," she said steadying herself.

"Maybe you should stay here with Naruto and Yamato," he suggested.

"No, I am coming with you," she said, her violet eyes full of determination.

"Alright, let's go then."

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"We've located Sasuke," Sai's clone relayed as they ran. The three of them raced to get to Sakura before she could get to Sasuke. They made it a ways further before Sai's clone told them Sakura managed to get the boys out of the way and disappeared in a puddle of black ink.

"Pretty gutsy Sakura," Kakashi said with a stern look on his face. "Can you sense them Avery?"

"Yes, two klicks ahead, and Sasuke is another klick passed that," she said and pushed herself forward even harder.

They picked up the speed as they ran. They needed to get to Sakura before she could get to Sasuke, or else she could be dead before they got there. It was a ways further before they found the boys with Akamaru unconscious in the middle of the path. Kakashi tried to wake them up but they were totally out. "Whatever Sakura used is strong, they won't be waking up anytime soon."

So instead of leaving them in the path, Kakashi and Avery moved the boys and Akamaru off the side of the path where they wouldn't be as easily discovered. "Which direction?" Kakashi asked Avery as they were getting ready to set off again.

"Two o'clock," she said and they ran toward where she could feel Sakura and Sasuke from.

Once they got so close Kakashi could feel them he started to think about what he was going to do. "Stop," he called to Avery and he threw his arm out in front of her.

"What is it?"

"I want you to stay here, there's no reason you need to get involved in this if you don't need to," Kakashi said, his voice had the weight of a million regrets to it.

Avery wasn't sure she understood, but she stayed by the end of the bridge where Kakashi had stopped her before he moved forward. Avery moved to a point where she could see what was happening on the bridge. She could see Sakura, standing over another woman with red hair in a black cloak.

Behind her was a man with black shaggy hair and blood running out of his left eye. He looked incredibly worn, like he had just had a long battle. He was wearing a grey shirt that was open partially in the front with blue wrist covers. He also had a blue cloth that hung from his waist to the middle of his thigh that was tied to him with a purple rope over the top of dark blue pants. Sasuke, she knew him based on his emotions; though they were darker than they had been before. He was so cold and it wasn't until she realized exactly how cold he was that she realized he was about to kill Sakura.

Avery wanted to lurch forward, but right when she would have moved, Kakashi blocked Sasuke's attack and managed to defend Sakura from him. It looked like they were talking then, Sakura was in so much emotional pain it made Avery's eyes sting as she tried to read Kakashi and Sasuke. Kakashi was heavy with regret and sorrow over his students, not even just Sasuke. Sasuke's emotions were angry, the hatred running through him was even stronger than the last time she had felt it. The last time it was freshly aimed at Itachi and now he seemed to hate everyone he came across. He was absolutely itching to kill Kakashi.

He looked crazed, like he was going insane with the hatred and revenge coursing through his veins. Kakashi felt responsible for how this was going and she could feel it. She couldn't stand to feel this so she struggled to turn her empathy off before she moved to see if she could get a better vantage point.

Sakura took the injured red head and moved her back to the end of the bridge so she could heal her. Avery thought for a moment about going to help her with healing the stranger, but Avery was more focused on watching the showdown between Kakashi and Sasuke. She needed to be ready in case she needed to jump in between the two men.

She watched as Sasuke attacked Kakashi. Kakashi threw up a wall behind him to keep the shuriken Sasuke threw from hitting Sakura behind Kakashi. Sasuke's continued attack was blocked from Avery's view at that point, but she could hear the chidori, it was just like Kakashi's.

The next thing she saw was Kakashi jump down off the bridge and land on the water underneath. Sasuke followed him down and was talking to him again. It was then she felt the surge of surprised fear from Kakashi that broke her seal on her empathy for a second before she saw what Sasuke was doing.

He had a new power coming from him and a large purple spectral warrior, first just the skeleton base, then a layer of muscle and skin with a layer of armor over that. It was huge; Avery couldn't believe what she was seeing. _What is that?_ She thought as she tried to decide what to do.

Sasuke's warrior raised its bow and arrow and shot directly at Kakashi. Avery panicked and moved the arrow off the path as Kakashi managed to disappear and reappear a few paces back from where he had been standing. Neither of them seemed to notice Avery's involvement as they continued their conversation. She felt like she needed to get closer, she couldn't stand to be this far. Could she save Kakashi from here if he needed the help? She couldn't stand on the water like they could. Or at least, she had never tried.

 _I need a spell,_ she thought; but right when she started to try to think of one, Sasuke's hatred pierced her and made her skull feel like it was going to split open. She grabbed her head and bit her lip to avoid screaming. She could feel his maniacal laughter resonating through her as his hatred and anger turned to a crazed frenzy of murderous, powerful bloodlust.

Luckily the pain in Avery's head subsided when the pain Sasuke was feeling broke into his emotions. She looked up to see the warrior vanishing and his was clutching his face. She stood again and wiped the tears from her cheeks that had fallen while she was in pain. She was getting ready to strike again, but she saw Sakura leaving the red haired woman behind as she ran toward the fight. Avery needed to act quickly.

 _Lacus levitas,_ she thought, knowing that it would still work even if she didn't speak it. It would allow her to stand on the water temporarily. She watched Sakura go down under the bridge, walking on the bottom so she could be above Sasuke to try to get the drop on him. Kakashi saw her too and lunged forward to try to stop her, but he was weak from using his Sharingan.

Sakura dropped down with a kunai in her hand that she had positioned at Sasuke's back. But she hesitated, her love causing her to pause. Avery could see it; she didn't need to feel it to know. She also didn't need to feel it to see that Sasuke was about to kill Sakura for the second time in the same hour.

Avery jumped into action then. She ran down to the bridge and jumped off, landing just behind Sasuke. She grabbed his arm and yanked, just as a flash of orange clothes and blonde hair went flying by them.

The eye contact between Sasuke and Naruto made a palpable tension very clear in the air around them. Naruto had Sakura cradled in his arms with a cut across his cheek. Avery took a swing at Sasuke while she thought he wasn't paying attention and he blocked it; but before she could continue, Kakashi jumped in. Their hand to hand fight pushed up the side of the bridge and out of sight. Avery ran to Naruto and Sakura to make sure they were alright, just as Sasuke and Kakashi landed back down to the water. Kakashi was crouched protectively in front of Naruto, Sakura, and now Avery as well; with Sasuke standing across from them all.

"You have even better timing than I do Naruto, I can't believe you're here, but I'm glad. You and Avery saved Sakura's life."

"Yes, thank you both," Sakura said shakily. Her emotions threatened Avery's control but she shut her out.

"How could you do this Sasuke? Sakura is a comrade from team seven, remember?" Naruto growled out at his former teammate.

"You mean, _former_ comrade, I'm not on your team anymore," he smirked evilly.

"Now do you two understand? Sasuke is not the same as he once was," Kakashi said, pain clear in his voice.

"Who's this? A new replacement? She looks weak," Sasuke taunted toward Avery.

"I'll show you weak in a second, pal," Avery snarled only to be stopped by Kakashi.

"You aren't going there," he said sternly.

Naruto stepped forward, ahead of Sakura but still behind Kakashi. He started to speak to Sasuke about the truth about his brother that Tobi had told him and how he understood about everything. His words caused the cold fire in Sasuke to burn more harshly than before and it threatened to split Avery's skull again. Between him, and Naruto, _and_ Sakura, Avery couldn't handle it. She went to her knee as the three of them talked at each other, only catching parts of the conversation.

"Do you even know what he's gone through?" Sakura asked accusingly.

More talk, clouded together by the pain of too many strong emotions swimming around in Avery's head, each trying to take dominance and control. It was then, she heard Naruto's words clear as day.

"Revenge. I swear I'll save you from revenge and the chaos that follows."

Her heart broke along with Sakura's as Sasuke's crazed victory over Danzo filled her. Avery knew what had happened before he said anything because she could feel it within him. He had killed Danzo, which he saw as revenge over what Danzo and the other village elders had forced Itachi to do. Whether that was true or not, Avery didn't know. She also couldn't focus as the conversation continued. She was having a hard time differentiating between the emotions running rampant in her head. Avery did her best to clamp down just in time to watch as Sasuke's chidori appeared in his hand, and he stepped forward. Kakashi also started his own chidori, but he was stopped by a Naruto shadow clone as the real Naruto charged Sasuke.

They hit each other with their individual jutsu and it rebounded and threw them each back after a solid moment of the jutsus both fighting for dominance. Avery jumped up to catch Naruto before he could get hurt and brought him back down just behind Kakashi. They looked back to Sasuke and he had also been caught by some weird white guy with half a face.

They saw the Akatsuki man with the orange mask appear then, and by the feeling she could feel coming from everyone around her, she could tell that was Madara. He scolded Sasuke for what he was doing but before they left, Naruto stepped forward.

He appealed to Sasuke's humanity. Naruto knew what to say to get under Sasuke's skin and he worked to make sure Sasuke felt the amount of respect he felt for him as a shinobi, but made it absolutely clear that they would die together if it ever came to a fight between them. Naruto swore by it. By the time Sasuke left with Madara, Naruto was content from seeing Sasuke. He had made his point, and he would abide by it.

Once they were gone, Naruto turned back to his team standing behind him. It was then that he started to feel woozy and looked like he would collapse.

"Sakura, those kunai didn't happen to be laced with poison did they?" Kakashi asked seeing how green Naruto was turning.

"Oh god, I totally forgot!" Sakura shouted as she scrambled to check Naruto's cut on his face. "I'll administer the antidote right away," she said and scrambled to get it as she apologized profusely to her very ill teammate.

Avery chuckled as her head spun with everything that had happened. She waited until Naruto had been given his antidote and then she helped him as they went back up to the bridge to pick up the red haired girl.

Suddenly Naruto was trapped in a wooden cage and lifted high above the bridge. Yamato had caught up to him. _How long did it take you to realize he gave you the slip?_ Avery asked herself. Naruto had been here LONG before Yamato.

"Ah Yamato you finally showed up," Kakashi said in a bored tone.

"Well, I had to come get Naruto," he responded dutifully.

"Ah, so I was wrong to assume you sent him as backup."

"No! Of course not I would never disobey you like that, you told me to take him to the village!"

"Ah, so Naruto out foxed you and gave you the slip then is that it?"

"No! I…ah…." Yamato ran out of things to say at that point.

"I see," Kakashi said, laughing internally at how easily flustered his precious kouhai was.

They all headed back to get Akamaru and the boys they left sleeping on the side of the path. Sakura and Avery went to work waking them up as Naruto plopped down beside them and fell asleep as well. Avery scoffed lightly and rolled her eyes before she looked to Kakashi. "We can just leave them all here," she joked.

"As easy as that would be, no we kinda have to take them with us," Kakashi said chuckling at the situation. The red haired girl was on his back as she was still too weak to walk on her own; Kakashi felt it would be best to carry her.

Once everyone was back on their feet, the boys with a lot of complaining about their heads hurting, and Sakura had apologized to everyone, they were back on the move. They took a leisurely pace back to the leaf village, the whole way Avery could tell the girl they had with them was a sensory type ninja. She kept sensing how warm Naruto's chakra was and marveling at how different he was from Sasuke. That was something Avery could definitely agree with, and after seeing Sasuke and how Naruto reacted to him; Avery was beyond worried about the future for her friend.

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Author: Thank you all for the support and views! Please let me know what ya'll think! I really love to hear feedback and opinions!


	10. Chapter 10

Author notes: So I know everything has been real canon lately, this chapter has a lot of Avery in it. A lot of Avery adding to the story. Hang with me guys I know this is very canon… we will get to the part where it wont be.

Also, I know I'm uploading early, but my sister is leaving for the summer on thursday and I want to spend tomorrow with her so I wont be working on this tomorrow. So you guys get your upload a day early rather than late.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything Naruto or anything else I might reference except my little weirdo ideas im adding to one of my favorite fandoms.

Also this chapter contains spoilers from around mid 200s episodes of shippuden.

ENJOY

Also, can you guys see what some of the couples I am going for are? Who thinks they know? :D

 _Chapter Ten_

When the group got back to the village, the boys all went home, or to their tents anyway, to rest while Kakashi and Avery took their visitor, Karin, to the interrogation unit with a still disgruntled Yamato in tow behind them. Once they got there and were speaking to Ibiki about who she was, she demanded to be allowed to walk herself and insisted that someone get her something to drink.

"Well," Ibiki said as she was escorted into the building, "we'll take care of her from here."

Avery and Kakashi nodded at him and wished him luck before walking away. Avery sighed as they walked back toward the tents. There was a lot of progress that had been made to the residential portion of the village after all the main government type buildings were finished. It actually turned out that all the civilians in the village were moved back into houses and apartments and they were just working on finishing the rest of the residential buildings for the ninjas. Even a few of the restaurants had been rebuilt; Avery knew Naruto would be happy to hear Ichiraku was back up and running.

Kakashi broke off from them to go find Shizune and the village elders to talk about the summit and recent death of Danzo. Yamato continued walking with Avery toward the tents in silence. His thoughts were wandering around his head, knowing Danzo was dead, and he hadn't noticed the curse mark on his tongue was gone. It wasn't until the group saw a couple of foundation members that had come to find Sai on their way back that he realized what had happened. No one had mentioned it to him or Sai and they both found themselves completely shocked that they were free from their old leader.

"Yamato…? Yamato…" Avery was calling to him.

"Oh, sorry what were you saying?"

"Are you alright?" Avery asked him. "You're really pale."

"Yeah, I'm fine, just thinking about what's going to happen to the village now," Yamato said dismissively.

"Ah, well, if you ever need to talk you're more than welcome to talk to me," Avery said as they arrived at their tents.

"Thank you, Avery."

"You're welcome," Avery said as she probed him with her empathy. He was torn about how to feel about Danzo's death. Avery could tell that he used to be a subordinate of Danzo's based on how Yamato felt, but she wasn't sure she was supposed to know that. She could also tell that he was thinking about Kakashi. Something about that made Avery wonder about the two of them, but she decided to leave that alone.

Madara's war declaration had put everything in motion. The village was still working on getting put back together while also taking inventory of supplies. Reports were being made up to send to the other villages as the first ever shinobi alliance was forming. It was announced Kakashi was going to be the sixth Hokage and he was doing his best to get through his meetings with the Feudal Lord and the village elders about the shinobi alliance.

It was a couple days later that the relief washed through Kakashi of not being forced to become Hokage.

"Someone! Come quick!" Shizune cried out from Lady Tsunade's tent.

A rush of people had come in to discover she was finally awake. After an evaluation of her health and someone had been set out to get her food, she had been deemed able to continue as Hokage.

Avery, Kakashi and Sakura were all standing before Lady Tsunade updating her on what had been happening and filling her in on the Allied Shinobi decision as well as the death of Danzo. They also knew that they needed to do something about Naruto and the hidden cloud's eight tails host as well. It was while they were discussing what Lady Tsunade would prefer to say to the other Kage about it that someone came and said Naruto disappeared from Ichiraku.

"What? How can that be? Someone find him!" She demanded and sent dozens of her shinobi scrambling to find the boy. Though he did reappear an hour later with a valid excuse for going missing.

Avery worried about Naruto. There was a lot on his plate, and he had basically told all their teammates that when it came to Sasuke, no one else was to get involved. He was decided on taking care of Sasuke himself. And even though everyone else thought that was an unnecessary decision, he wouldn't budge from it.

The Kage came together again since Lady Tsunade was awake now to discuss the finer tuned details of the Allied Shinobi Forces. Avery sat on the step outside the meeting waiting impatiently because she knew they were going to be discussing what will be done about Naruto in this meeting.

It bothered her more than she could express that everyone seemed to think something needed to be done about him. She knew just as well as anyone he wouldn't appreciate anyone telling him he couldn't go with for the war. She could already see him yelling and refusing to be left behind.

 _There's just no way he'll just…_

"Avery."

Avery jumped as she looked up into the one uncovered eye of Kakashi. She glared at him when her heart rate slowed back down to normal. "Why do you do that?" she threw her hands in the air and then rested her elbows on her knees.

"Do what? What are you talking about?" he asked innocently.

"Ugh, never mind," she rolled her eyes.

"Avery," he said again, his hands in his pockets. One dark grey eye looked over Avery; she was sitting outside the Kage meeting like she was waiting to ambush whoever emerged. "What are you doing?"

"Me? I'm just sitting here," she said trying to look as innocent as he did when he so rudely scared her.

"Avery."

"Alright, I'm waiting for Lady Tsunade to get out of the Kage meeting," she said as she pretended to pick at her thumb nail.

"Why?"

"Because…I'm worried about Naruto," she mumbled so quietly he couldn't have possibly heard her.

"Pardon me? I didn't catch that," he said pleasantly.

"I'm worried about Naruto," she said standing up and throwing her hands out and turning away. "There, are you happy?"

"Look, I know you're worried. I am too, but they are in there literally to decide what to do in order to keep him safe," Kakashi said. He laid a hand on her shoulder until she looked back at him. "They are going to make the best decision for him."

"But that decision is most likely going to be to hide him somewhere, do you really think he's going to just be okay with that?!" She asked him. "Tsunade isn't even going to like that but I have this gut feeling that is exactly what they are talking about in there!"

"Avery, are you sitting out here so you can spy on the meeting with your empathy without overwhelming yourself with the rest of the village?" Kakashi asked.

She glared at him; mostly because he was right. She sighed and sat back down on the step. "I just want to know what they're doing for him. He's one of the most important people in my life now; I just want what's best for him."

"But you're still against them hiding him away?"

"Yes because I won't be there to make sure he doesn't do something stupid while he's being forced to hide," Avery said.

"Look, I know you're worried about him, but I think you're over thinking this whole thing, I am sure Tsunade will figure out what to say to him in order to make him safe if they do put them away."

As he finished saying that the door opened and the Raikage, A, the Mizukage, Mei, and Gaara all came out together. Mei stepped up to Kakashi and said her hellos in a fairly flirtatious manner before walking away with her Jounin that had been inside with her. A and his Jounin left without a word which just left Avery and Kakashi standing there with Gaara and Temari.

"Hey, where's Kankuro?" Avery asked as she gave them each a hug.

"He's home overlooking the war preparations," Temari said. "It's so good to see you I really wish we could stay."

"Me too," Avery said before she grabbed Gaara's hand and squeezed. "How are you doing?"

He smiled gently before he sighed, "I am fine."

Avery looked at Kakashi and said, "Go ahead, I'll be there in a minute."

Kakashi nodded before stepping into the building to go meet with Lady Tsunade. Temari smiled at Avery and said, "I am going to give you two a minute."

Avery waited until they were alone before she turned her attention back to Gaara. "Alright, for real now, are you okay?"

Gaara considered lying, but figured she would know if he did and decided against it. "I am actually very nervous. This is war, this is extremely real and a very dangerous time for all the villages." He ran his hand through his hair and sighed again, "I am just concerned for my village. I am young; I want to know I am doing right by them. I know these other Kage just see me as a child, but…"

"But you're amazing…" Avery said reassuringly. "You're going to be great. You care so much about Suna, anyone who disagrees with your age can just suck it for all I'm concerned," Avery said with a smile.

Gaara chuckled at her, as always, very sophisticated way of putting things. He stepped forward and gave her a hug then, "You always know what to say."

"I try," she said and smiled at him. "Have a safe trip home okay?"

"I will," he said and stepped away from her. "Be safe Avery."

She nodded and watched him walk away to find Temari and head home. Once she couldn't see him anymore she walked inside to go up to the office to see Tsunade. She passed the Tsuchikage, Onoki, on her way up and nodded once to him and his granddaughter.

She walked into the room to see Tsunade sitting behind her desk with her head in her hands. Kakashi was standing there with her with his arms folded across his chest. "Well?" Avery asked seeing them this way, "I'm guessing it isn't good."

"We have decided to hide them away," Tsunade sighed as she looked up at Avery. "We had to come to a unanimous decision, and that is what they all decided. And after talking to A… I don't know it might not be the worst thing." She looked almost ashamed at her choice.

Avery didn't say anything; she just sat down in the chair across from Tsunade and looked at her.

"Come on Avery say something," Tsunade said like she was expecting her to yell.

"What do you want me to say?" she asked. "You're the Hokage, you have to make the decision you think is best."

"What a load of crap, Avery," Tsunade shouted standing up and pacing away from her desk. "You are totally against this and I know it!"

"No," Avery said calmly from her seat. She sat back and crossed her legs delicately. _Gaara is getting to me,_ she thought as she crossed her hands in her lap. "I'm against him not being safe. So if this is what is safest for him, then that is that. The question is: what are you going to tell him. You know he won't go willingly."

Tsunade sighed and continued to pace, "Well, I was trying to decide that. You're right he won't go willingly."

"Where are they being sent to?" Kakashi asked.

"Some island in the hidden cloud A and B used to train on," Tsunade said as she bit her thumb nail. "It's supposed to be a place where B might be able to train Naruto."

"Well couldn't we just tell him that? I mean he's always looking for ways to get stronger," Avery said.

"It might not be enough though…" Tsunade said. "He knows what's going on; he knows his comrades will be preparing for war. If he feels like he's not doing enough it will be just as bad as if we told him we're hiding him."

No one said anything for a few minutes. They all just started off into space as they thought about what they were going to do. Finally, Kakashi broke the silence.

"We tell him he's going on a mission."

The two women looked at him then, both with a thoughtful look on their faces. Avery turned back to Tsunade, "That might not be a bad idea."

Tsunade nodded, "Yes… We can tell him we have an S rank mission for him and only him." She sat down at her desk and pulled a few scrolls and papers out. "We can send a few people with him to guard him, especially for the journey there."

"Journey?"

"They are going to be going by sea. I thought of having you orb him, but you don't know where this is and it would have been very difficult for you to place," Tsunade told Avery.

Avery nodded slowly, "Who are you sending with him? Kakashi? Me?"

She shook her head, "No I need you both here. You two will both be crucial to the war I am sure of it," she said as she laid out a few different scrolls. "I know for certain I'll be sending Yamato; as his mokuton is essential for Naruto ever being able to either fully contain or control the nine tails."

"But I thought Yamato didn't have as much of an effect since the Lord First's necklace broke during Pein's attack…" Kakashi protested gently.

"It doesn't but he is still fully capable of helping Naruto. He knows all the signs of Naruto slipping control. And he _can_ still help Naruto," Tsunade said and then stopped and closed her eyes a moment. "Aoba will accompany them, as well as Gai."

Avery could feel Kakashi wanting to say something about it. He didn't like sending Yamato without him; but she couldn't figure out why. They had been on missions separate before. She stayed neutral as Tsunade finished her thought and then smiled. "Sounds like Naruto will be in excellent hands, as long as this works."

At that moment, Shikaku Nara and Shizune both stepped into the room. "Ah, come in both of you." Tsunade said and then recounted everything that had been decided regarding Naruto as well as what the other Kage had to say about the Allied Forces.

Avery stayed quiet during this time. She had now felt this warm, protective feeling from Kakashi while she had also felt an almost affectionate, respectful feeling that conflicted with Yamato's feelings about Danzo's death. Something was going on with those two, she was sure.

"Avery!"

Tsunade's voice broke her from her thoughts, "Yes?"

"We were trying to decide which unit you'd be better off being part of in the war. I was thinking the medic core could use you… However Kakashi and Shikaku both think you might be better off in battle. Though how fast your energy comes back is something we haven't been able to really determine."

"I can keep up with Naruto when we train… there are certain things I can work on, but at the same time I want to be as much help as I can."

Tsunade nodded, "I have put Sakura in the medical core. I will decide later where we will put you."

Avery nodded slightly and looked at Shikaku. He really did look like an older version of Shikamaru, with scars on his face. He had a young face with a wise expression to it that made Avery think he was either always a genius, or older than he looked. He watched Avery with an intense look that Avery couldn't place; like he was trying to figure her out.

When Tsunade dismissed their meeting, Avery waited outside the building for Shikaku. He emerged from the building and turned directly to her, like he knew she would be waiting for him. "Avery, come with me."

Avery followed him over to the intelligence building. They walked inside and Shikaku took her up to an office and shut the door. She looked around; it looked like it could have been _his_ were a few pictures, mostly of his wife, but one of Shikamaru when he was younger. But most of the office was full of books and scrolls. He had been doing some sort of extremely intense research lately from the look of it.

"Do you know why I brought you here Avery?"

"No, Mr. Nara," she said.

"Shikaku, please," he said as he sat down at his desk. "Avery you have a set of extremely special talents and skills that would make you an asset in this war. However, war is a very emotional time for many people."

Avery froze as she realized where this was going. The one power she had never had a problem with before was the one that went the most haywire here. She had decided that everything was so personal to everyone here. There were so many issues that were ruled by emotions in this world; it was unlike anything she had ever been a part of.

"I understand," she said cautiously as she sat down.

"I think it would be in your best interest to make sure you have complete control over that ability. I understand it is one you were born with and have never needed to work on," he said watching her carefully. "It may be time for you to work on it now. This shinobi world you live in now is a place with many strong warriors. But with strong warriors, generally comes strong emotions. This is something you've witnessed yourself since you've been here."

He was right; she had witnessed a large range of powerful emotions since she had been here. The ones she had been unable to work through being ones like Sasuke's hate and Naruto's pained mix of emotions the from a few weeks ago. She knew she needed to work through it. She hadn't even been overcome from her clan's emotions through deaths in the family and through the attack. Emotions here were just stronger.

The bonds were stronger here than she had ever witnessed. It was one of the reasons she loved being here so much.

"I agree. I will work on it as much as I can Shikaku. Thank you for your advice, sir."

Shikaku nodded and smiled, "I have zero doubts that you'll be an amazing Shinobi in your own way."

She smiled at his use of the word Shinobi. She didn't think of herself as one… maybe it was time she started.

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"Be safe, I am counting on you."

It was the day Naruto was leaving for his "special mission" trip. Avery was dreading this day and had even stayed the night at Naruto's apartment the night previous. Pretty much everyone was back to having their own living space again. The village had come so far from Pein's attack. Avery and Kakashi had gone to see their four ninja they were dispatching for the trip off together. Standing next to the entrance of the village with them, the feeling hit home for Avery; she wouldn't see Naruto for a long time.

"I got this, I'll be back before you know it," he said and gave her his usual smile. He gave her another hug and turned away. "Take care of everyone for me," he said to her over his shoulder.

She nodded with tears in her eyes, "I will, don't you worry."

"I'm not worried, it's you."

Over a few paces away from that tender moment, Kakashi was saying goodbye to Yamato. Of course, not the way he would like to be doing it, but he could never have his way when it came to Tenzou.

"Don't worry about him so much," Yamato was saying to him. "I can keep an eye on him and I have Gai and Aoba to help me. He's in good hands," he said with a reassuring smile.

"Just promise me one thing, Tenzou," Kakashi said.

"What is it, Senpai?"

Kakashi looked at him with a hard look in his one visible eye. It froze Yamato in his place with the intensity of a million fires.

"Don't forget to take care of yourself."

The order had taken Yamato off guard, but before he had a chance to respond, Gai come over and hugged Kakashi with waterfalls for tears falling from his eyes.

"Kakashi, my rival, the time has come for us to separate! BUT DO NOT WORRY! WE HAVE NOT HAD OUR LAST MATCH!"

"Gai, I can't breathe," Kakashi said as he struggled out of Gai's grip.

Gai laughed heartily as he stepped away, "We will be alright," he promised.

Kakashi smiled a little, he did appreciate Gai in his own way. "Thank you Gai. Yamato, don't forget what I said."

Yamato was still struggling with Kakashi's order to him, but he nodded his head once. "Yes Senpai," he said obediently.

"Come, we need to get going," Aoba said.

Kakashi and Avery watched them leave until they couldn't see them anymore. Avery sighed and turned away just after she felt Kakashi leave her side, but he hadn't gone far. They walked back into the village together in silence; both with fresh worry in their hearts.

"Kakashi," Avery said then.

"Yes Avery?"

"Shikaku brought up a valid point of my need to get a stronger hold on my empathy before the coming war. Would you be able to help me?"

Kakashi was quiet for a while. He knew he would be able to pull some very strong emotions for her to try and resist. Though, it would mean she would know more about him than even Naruto.

"Yeah… Come to my apartment tonight," he said. "We'll work on it there."

She nodded once before she went off in the opposite direction of where they were walking. Kakashi watched her go. He didn't know what it was about her, but he felt like he could trust her. That and she did need the help. Between Sasuke and Naruto… emotions had been running wild within her recently and as helpful as it was, they couldn't risk it being a hindrance in the upcoming battle.

What Kakashi would be doing for her would bare him completely to her. She needed the help, and there was a chance so did he.

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When Avery got to Kakashi's apartment that night she was uncertain about what he had planned for her. She considered this to be a training exercise, but since it wasn't physical she figured it made sense for it to not take place in a training ground; but at his apartment?

She raised her fist to knock on the door and stepped back cautiously. She had changed out of her normal wear and wore something more comfortable for the exercise. She had on a deep green tank top the hugged her curves and the black sweats Kakashi had given her. The bottom was rolled up a little so she didn't trip over it while she was trying to walk. She was wearing converse on her feet to complete the outfit, something she was extremely comfortable in.

Kakashi answered the door in his normal long dark blue pants; he had no shoes on and a similar tank top with the mask pulled up over his face. No headband again, leaving him to hold his left eye closed. The scar that ran down the left side of his face looked connected with his eye closed, a dark pink line down his face where someone had to have slashed his eye.

"Come in," he said stepping aside for her to slip inside.

She took off her shoes as soon as she walked inside, looking at his eye as she did. "Can I ask you something about your eye?"

He shook his head, "You'll likely learn about it tonight with what we are going to be doing."

Avery nodded slowly and followed him as he walked wordlessly passed her to the living room. She watched him sit down on a chair he had set across from the couch, and then gestured for her to take a seat on the couch. She did as she was silently told to do and watched him for instruction.

"What we are about to do is something I have never considered letting someone ever do…" Kakashi said nervously. He took a breath and continued, "I'm going to let you into the most private memories of my life, because the emotion that goes with them is usually strong enough to make me nearly hallucinate. Your goal is to not react to them outwardly, and in turn eventually be able to shut off your empathy over the top of them."

Avery nodded slowly and bit her lip. She could already feel Kakashi's anxiety over this, though she had opened up her empathy to feel that. "Are you just going to recall things?"

"I am going to tell you the stories of what happened to my teammates," Kakashi said. "Do you need anything before we start?"

"Maybe some water," she said softly.

Kakashi nodded and stood from his chair. He padded quietly into the kitchen to receive two glasses of water before coming back and handing one to Avery. He kept the other himself, taking a small sip before putting it on the table between him and the blue haired witch across from him.

Avery set her glass down and sat back crossing her legs. She crossed her arms across her chest and waited silently for Kakashi to begin.

"Let's start with Obito," he said and closed his eyes taking another deep breath before launching into his story. Before he even started Avery felt pain lance her heart as the guilt rolled through her so hard she nearly cried. She could see now why he had agreed to help her with this.

The story of Obito was heart wrenching on its own without Kakashi's unnecessary guilt added to it. The guilt made it almost unbearable as Avery sat there panting through the pain. She could feel tears stinging her eyes by the time he got to the part where Obito was crushed under the boulder and had given Kakashi his Sharingan. A piece of Avery's mind registered that this had been what she would have asked him about when she walked in, and now she knew why he told her no.

Once his story of Obito was concluded, he moved right into the next story. Rin was his other teammate from his Genin team. Kakashi had promised Obito to protect her but when the mist had taken her and put the three tailed beast inside her, she was afraid to return to the village. She knew she was rigged to release the beast when they returned and didn't want to return to the village for it to just be destroyed.

Avery had been doing okay with the emotion through the story of Rin, due to the fact that she was trying to suppress it. However, once Kakashi got to the part where Rin impaled herself on Kakashi's chidori, Avery's heart exploded in the pain of Kakashi's guilt. Tears leaked from her eyes as she lurched forward, clutching her chest. She was in awe of how Kakashi could sit so still, while she was sitting in immense pain. She looked at her right hand and gasped audibly when she realized she could see phantom blood splatters on it for a second before it disappeared to reveal it had never really been there.

She looked back up at Kakashi when the pain began to fade. He wasn't just still, he was rigid. He was stiff as a board as he sat there staring unseeingly with both eyes open; his Sharingan a dull red that didn't match with the peace of his dark grey real eye. He looked up at her after what felt like an eternity and then closed his eyes against the pain Avery could still feel radiating off him, just not as strong.

Eventually he opened his eyes again and continued; the pain of his sensei's death not nearly as strong. Avery was able to block him out easily as he spoke of Minato. The greater pain came after when he admitted he had let Danzo feed him lies about the third Hokage and almost was responsible for his death. She had still been able to block the pain of that one out but it wasn't easy.

When he calmed back down he sighed and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "I have just told you more than any of my students know about me," he admitted weakly.

"Does anyone know?"

"Yamato knows most of it, and Gai knows everything. Gai has known me for a very long time."

She nodded slowly, her eyes dry of any tears now. "You have held onto this guilt for so long, you don't even respond to the pain anymore."

"I can't let it rule me. I learned that lesson a long time ago," he said simply with a shrug of his shoulders.

"None of it actually seems like it was your fault," she said softly. "Why do you feel such strong guilt?"

He flinched at her question, and she felt the pang go through her steadily. She waited patiently for him to answer and when he did, the answer ripped through her entire body.

"They were my people, it was my job to protect them, and I failed."

Avery closed her eyes as tears threatened to break through again. She took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of her nose until she felt the rise of his emotion close off as she forced her empathy power shut. Of course, Avery was enough of a caring person that it still hurt her heart to hear about Kakashi's pain. But just in the normal way, not in the extra way her empathy always made her feel things. Avery knew she had more questions at this point about everything, but only one remained present in her mind.

"That will be all for tonight, we can't do it all at once or it won't have the right affect," Kakashi said as he relaxed back in his chair. He was done skipping down the lane of painful memories for the evening.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Alright," he said cautiously.

She flicked her empathy back on in her mind before she asked her question. She expected she already knew the answer to what she was about to ask, but she wanted to ask anyway.

"How do you feel about Yamato?"

At first there had been little reaction, but she could feel the steady affection building in him as he realized what she asked him. He just smiled through his mask and said, "He was my Kouhai once upon a time, I respect him as a shinobi and a co captain, that's all."

Avery nodded with a smile at Kakashi's lie. He didn't have to tell her right now, but one day she vowed the two of them would need to be honest with each other about how they felt, otherwise it would be awkward forever.

She left Kakashi's apartment and walked back to her apartment while she thought about what she had learned about her captain tonight. Kakashi had bared his entire life to her in just a couple stories; something that was extremely hard to do. When she got back to her apartment, she kicked off her shoes and socks and plopped onto her bed to lie on her back. She took a few deep breaths before allowing herself to fall asleep.

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Thank you for all the views! I really appreciate all the support! I've heard that comments equals love, so I would love to see more love… Everyone please hold with me, I know this is all very canon, but it will get better I promise!


	11. Chapter 11

Author notes: This is probably my favorite chapters from part one. I am working on part two, so that means part one (the canon part) Is completely done being written!

Disclaimers: I do not own anything still

Warnings: Drama…. AND SMUT! Whaaaaaat? Yes, you read that right. really, there is smut in this chapter.

No additional spoilers in this chapter.

ENJOY

 _Chapter Eleven_

Avery went to Kakashi's apartment every night over the next week to work on her empathy. It wore her out repeatedly but it was worth the workout if it meant she might have a chance at maintaining a level head on the battlefield. She was making progress and at the latest visit she had been able to keep him out completely though Obito's entire story. However when he got to Rin's death, it still tore through Avery's heart. Even if her empathy was completely off, when he got to that part, his guilt tore her apart.

During the day when she wasn't at Kakashi's house letting him tear her to pieces, she was running around helping with war preparations. Helping move storage around and taking inventory of supplies. She had even gone out one day to collect medicinal herbs with Sakura all day long.

The night that would have been Avery's eighth in a row at Kakashi's apartment, Kakashi told her not to come. "You need a break, or we will wear you out completely," he said when he approached her while she was having dinner at Ichiraku.

"Alright, I'll go bug someone else tonight then since you don't want my company," she teased lightly.

"Have a good time," he said laughing as he walked away with a little green book in front of his face.

Avery finished her ramen and paid before wandering down a path that would lead her to Shikamaru's house. When she got there she knocked quietly and waited for a few minutes before she realized he must not be home.

She turned around to head back toward her own apartment, not having the slightest clue about where to start looking for him. It was on her way back to her apartment from his house that she saw him.

"Hey, I had just tried to see if you were home," she said smiling.

"Oh I was helping Choji with something, what's up?"

"I just thought we could play a few rounds of shogi. We haven't done that in a while," she said smiling at him.

Shikamaru's eyes lit up at the suggestion, "Yeah we haven't done that in a while; you might not remember how to play."

"I wouldn't count on it Nara," she said with a mischievous glint in her own eyes.

They walked back to his house arguing over who was going to win the first game. Once they got there they got right into playing. Somehow a wager of ten dollars had been placed on who would win the first game and by the end of the game, Shikamaru was gloating and taking Avery's ten from her.

"I was so freaking close," she said in frustration.

"You were. I thought you had me."

She laughed lightly, and then she realized the house was extremely quiet. "Where are your parents?"

"Dad wanted to take mom to a hot spring in a small village toward the edge of the Land of Fire before we had to go off for the war," Shikamaru said quietly. The idea of war was not something he was hoping for in his lifetime. Though he had figured it would be inevitable, he hoped it would happen later than seventeen.

"That's nice of him," Avery said with a smile as she stared at the shogi board. She realized that meant she and Shikamaru were completely alone.

Shikamaru watched her from his place across the board from her. There was a light blush creeping over her cheeks and she had her hands on her thighs, gripping at the bottom of her short maroon dress. It had been a while since she had started wearing this outfit, but he never got the chance to fully appreciate it with how busy the two of them had been. He felt like he hadn't had any genuine time with her in so long.

Slowly, Shikamaru started to reset the shogi board. He bit his lip, trying to decide if he wanted to invite her to play another game, or if he wanted to go somewhere else in the house.

"Let's play again," Avery decided for him. Her voice cracked a little when she spoke and she bit her lip lightly when she looked up into his eyes. His stomach twisted not unpleasantly when he stared into her deep amethyst colored eyes.

"Alright," he said and gestured for her to go first this game. They spent a surprisingly small amount of time during the game looking at the board. They were too busy looking at each other most of the time they were playing. The eye contact between the two of them was creating a clear heat between them.

At some point Avery lost interest in the game and was making moves that didn't matter just to get through it. Shikamaru seemed to pick up on this though and at some point he just pushed the game board aside and leaned forward on his hands toward her. They had each been sitting on their knees on a cushion on the floor, and it didn't take much for Shikamaru to close the gap between them.

Their lips slammed together and Avery sighed against him as she closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around his neck. Her fingers toyed with the band holding his hair up in its usual ponytail and by the time he had his arms around her, his hair was out of the ponytail and falling onto his shoulders. She ran her fingers through his silky hair as his hands gripped her waist and crushed her body to his. They stood up on their knees to allow their bodies to fit together easier as their lips moved together.

Avery broke off for air first; her skin hot with the blush she knew was there. Shikamaru didn't take his lips away from her skin; instead he trailed small, warm kisses down her jaw line and neck. A small moan escaped Avery's lips as he let his tongue graze the skin of her neck just under her ear. The sound just encouraged Shikamaru as he wound one of his hands into her hair and tugged her head to the side so he had more access to her slender neck.

Avery closed her eyes and melted completely into Shikamaru's embrace. Each brush of his touch sent a thrill through her body that she had never experienced before. She had only been intimate with someone once before and it hadn't been anything like she had been expecting. The contrast of what she experienced with Shikamaru was startling. Avery had felt bored and the touches had not sent her hormones on fire the way Shikamaru was. She felt like it was strange she was analyzing the difference between her experiences with intimacy until Shikamaru's teeth grazed her earlobe and she forgot everything.

She shoved him backward so hard he landed on his ass. His look of surprise lasting only a second before it melted back into the desire that had been there when she straddled his hips. She cupped his face in both her hands and ground her hips against him as she captured his lips with hers again. She heard his breath hitch and felt his arms closing around her waist. He slid his body backward so his back was resting against the wall with her still on his lap as she slipped her tongue into his mouth. She could feel him getting hard beneath her, but what she felt next was a shock.

It suddenly felt like he had extra hands. She tried to break the kiss but he held her in place somehow even though both his hands were at her hips, toying with the sash on her dress. He untied her leaf headband from around her waist and she heard it clatter to the floor. Then she felt her dress loosen as the sash came off and felt the cool air as her dress opened in the front and slipped off her shoulders to reveal the mesh under shirt. He broke the kiss off long enough to slip her shirt over her head before he reclaimed her lips. In the brief time their lips were parted, she realized what was securing her head.

It was a damned shadow.

She didn't even have time to be amused or impressed that he had managed to use his shadows to his advantage in this situation, because another tendril of shadow had unclipped her lacy, navy blue bra and it slid down her shoulders. Her hands slid over Shikamaru's Chunin vest and quickly unzipped it, pushing it open. He slid her bra straps further down her arms and took them off her hands and set it aside before he let his hands wander up the soft, bare skin of her back.

She continued to move her hips against his as she slipped her hands under his shirt. Her hands traced over his hard muscles on his abdomen before pushing even further up and feeling his hard chest. She pushed gently so he would break the kiss so she could quickly take his shirt off over his head after he had shrugged out of his Chunin vest.

With both their chests bare, they both flushed deeply and Avery took advantage of his hesitation to start kissing his jaw and neck. Her hips continued their relentless movements against his until he moaned and bucked his own hips up into hers and she gasped against the skin on his neck. Her hands trailed down his chest and over his stomach to the waistband of his pants. He moaned softly feeling her thumbs slip under the fabric. His concentration broke and the shadows disappeared as she slipped off his lap so she could drag his pants and boxers at the same time down and off. She tossed them behind her before she crawled back onto his now naked lap and continued to grind her pelvis against his.

It didn't last long before she was flipped onto her back on the wooden flood and he was kissing her neck. His hands finding the waistband of her mesh shorts and lacy underwear (that matched her bra) as he kissed a line down her neck and over her collarbone. He dragged her shorts down her legs and off, revealing her own naked flesh before he crawled back over the top of her. He continued his trail of kisses where he had left off along her collarbone, taking the time to trace her tattoo with his tongue.

She squirmed and moaned softly underneath him.

Her breath hitched when his mouth closed around one of her nipples. She sighed and wrapped one of her hands in his hair while the other traced down the side of his body. He was about to continue to kiss down her body when she orbed out from under him and appeared crouched next to him. She pushed him over onto his back and moved to straddle his thighs. Her hands went up the sides of his legs from where hers were positioned and then ran up his sides as far as she could reach before she raked her nails down his chest. He moaned loudly and arched his back.

She began placing quick, chaste kisses around his pelvic area, in every place except where his desire for her was obvious. He panted lightly and reached down to grip her hair, trying to guide her to where he wanted her attention. She smiled and allowed him to guide her to his hard length, where she simply flicked her tongue across the top. Just that simple action sent a ripple of pleasure through Shikamaru so hard that he threw his head back and moaned loudly. She gripped the base of his cock with her hand before she looked up at him and waited for him to look at her. She made eye contact with him before she closed her lips around the head of his aching length, sending another wave of pleasure rippling through him.

Shikamaru had never imagined something like this could feel so good. He had had orgasms before, using his own hand; he was a teenage boy after all. But this was on another level entirely. His head was so clouded he found himself struggling to remember to breathe. One hand was still wound in Avery's deep blue hair and the other was scratching the floor under him trying to find something to clutch onto as Avery took more of him into her warm mouth.

Avery swirled her tongue around him as she took more into her mouth. One hand was still holding the base of his hard length while she was trailing her fingers over his hip and thigh with the other. She could feel each shudder of pleasure that went through his body just as clearly as she could hear the moans that went with them. She was prepared to have him come in her mouth, but a knock on the door tore them both out of their lustful haze.

Avery's head snapped up at the same time Shikamaru sat up. He was scrambling to retrieve his clothes and shouted, "Hang on a moment," to the person who had knocked for a second time on the door as he struggled to pull his pants on.

"It's me, open the damn door," Ino's impatient voice came from the other side of the door.

"Shit," Shikamaru muttered as he threw his shirt back on, _backwards_ , and hastily shrugged into his vest and zipped it up. Avery made sure she was completely out of sight from Ino with all her clothes and began to dress as she heard Shikamaru open the door.

"Fina-… Shikamaru… your hair is down," Ino observed skeptically.

That was unusual enough without the obvious glaze over his eyes, and the red marks where Avery's nails or teeth had marked Shikamaru's skin.

"Yeah, I uh… was about to shower."

"I see, well I won't keep you too long, my father just wanted me to bring these by for when your dad gets back."

"Great, I'll pass it along," he said hurriedly. He was still hard and was trying not to let Ino see it.

"Alright, well enjoy your shower," Ino said with a smile. "And tell Avery I said hello," she smirked and walked away.

 _Damn her sensory skills,_ Shikamaru thought with gritted teeth. He closed the door with a light blush on his face. Something about Ino calling him out that way broke him from his lustful haze. When he came back around the corner, he wasn't completely hard anymore and Avery was fully dressed. Her full lips were red and slightly swollen, and she had a blush across her own face. She was also trying to comb her hair out with her fingers, as it had gotten tangled while he had had her pinned on the ground.

"I should go," she said softly.

Shikamaru couldn't even argue, so he just nodded. He walked over to her and touched her cheek lightly, "I didn't mean for things to get that out of hand."

Avery shrugged a little as pain stabbed her, she hadn't been sorry about it but now she wondered if he was. "It's alright…"

She probed his emotions while he leaned to kiss her. He didn't regret it. It was more that he was embarrassed they got caught. Avery decided she could live with that and kissed him back gently.

"I'll see you later," Avery said when she broke away and went to the door. She slipped her boots on; then walked out the door without a second glance back to Shikamaru.

He watched the door close behind her and ran his hands through his tangled hair. He groaned in frustration as he turned and walked over to the bathroom. _I might as well actually take a shower now_ , he thought as he turned the water on and stripped his clothes back off. He didn't know what that just did to his and Avery's relationship, but he could tell no matter what; it was going to be a drag.

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The next day Avery was wandering around the village, practicing trying to handle multiple emotions at once. It was still a little painful if she tried to tap into the entire village, but she found she could handle many people's emotions at once if they weren't too intense. She had only ever met one other empath in her life, and he had said he could hear everyone within a five mile radius of him at all times but had had to learn to tune them out. Avery had always had it easy, having the ability to turn it off and aim it at people. But it made her totally unable to control it if it was forced outside her comfort zone.

She had been working on stretching it out as far as she could when she realized she heard two emotional signatures she wasn't used to feeling all the time.

 _Kankuro and Temari are here!_

She shut her empathy off and headed in the direction she felt them coming from immediately. Of course it ended up being the building with Tsunade's office in it, but Kankuro was waiting outside for Temari. Avery walked up to him with a huge smile on her face, "Kankuro! Hey, I didn't know you were going to be in the village today!"

"Avery, hey yeah we are checking on the reports for the allied forces and all that crap," Kankuro replied giving her a quick smile before his face turned more serious. "Actually, I need to talk to you about something."

"Oh, alright, what's up?"

"What's the deal with you and Shikamaru?"

 _Well that was… abrupt,_ Avery thought as she folded her arms over her chest and scowled a little, "How do you mean?"

Kankuro shook his head a little with his arms folded across his own chest. That was enough of an answer for him right there. "Look, Avery. I just don't think Shikamaru is someone you should get involved with," he said with a commanding tone.

 _Oh hell no, he is not going to just boss me around like this…hooker paint…_

"Not that it's any of your business, Kankuro, but Shikamaru and I are both adults and we can decide for ourselves what we want to do around each other. I appreciate your concern, but this is my life; and you aren't _my_ big brother. I can handle myself, Kankuro," she said with a clipped tone as she tried to conceal her own anger at his words. How dare he try to tell her who she can or can't be around.

Kankuro glared at her. His jaw set hard before he spoke, " _Look_ , I know you and he had some kind of special connection when you first met, yadda yadda, whatever. However, you're still the newcomer around here and you can't just waltz in here and do whatever you want." Clearly he was trying to get back at her with his own nasty comments.

"What is this really about, Kankuro? Cause right now you're really pissing me off."

"Well maybe if you kept your hands to your damned sel-"

Kankuro's sentence was cut short when Avery slapped him hard across the face. The reverberations of the hollow sound ringing in the empty air around the two of them. She was seething and couldn't help it. If Gaara heard how Kankuro was talking to her right now she had no doubt he would have done it himself.

"Mind your own _fucking_ business," she growled through her teeth.

"What's going on?"

The two of them turned to see Temari had emerged from the building (of course it would be when her brother looked like an innocent little victim) and was approaching her friend and brother. Kankuro grumbled as he stepped away from Avery rubbing his cheek where she slapped him. No doubt the spot would be bright red and warm at this point. Avery growled to herself as she glared at Kankuro while Temari approached.

"Seriously, what has gotten into you two? I feel like I just walked into a fight," Temari asked looking from Avery to Kankuro. Kankuro looked like Avery hit him, and Avery looked like she wanted to do it again.

"You did…"

"Well, he-"

"She _just_ slapped me!"

"Hush," Temari waved Kankuro off, "I can see that I'll get to **you** in a moment." Temari watched Avery very carefully, her eyes darkened and wary. "Why did you slap him?"

"I didn't really appreciate him making me sound like some kind of dumb whore," Avery said crossing her arms across her chest.

"Oh? And how did he do that?" Temari asked, though she had an idea she knew where this was going.

Avery sighed, her glare still firmly in place across the features of her face. "Shikamaru," she said flatly. Plain and simple, but she knew Temari would know.

Temari's teeth clenched as she felt a little green demon of jealousy slide through her body. She closed her eyes and huffed her breath. _I knew this was coming eventually…_ Temari gathered herself before she opened her eyes and looked Avery in the eye.

"And what exactly happened between you and Shikamaru," Temari asked through gritted teeth.

"Avery's gonna get it now," Kankuro mumbled.

A heavy smack rang through the air again.

"OW! What the fuck!?"

"Shut up Kankuro, she's still my friend so just shove it _Hooker Paint_ ," Temari seethed before turning back to Avery. She was still her friend so she shouldn't be too hard on her, but at the same time it was a little hard (not too hard) to side against Kankuro when he was being a complete ass.

"Look, it doesn't matter what has happened between you and Shikamaru. I don't really want to hear it. What I will say about it is that I… I have some feelings for that boy, though I have never really had the chance to figure them out. You live here, you have more chances to speak with him than I do," Temari sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "I like you, you're my friend and I don't want to be a bitch about this," she folded her arms across her body. "But leave him alone, Avery."

Avery's blood was boiling.

She couldn't believe what she was hearing from either of them. She didn't intend to betray Temari, how was she supposed to know she had feelings for Shikamaru? Was she just supposed to guess? _What a load of crap_ , Avery thought as she ground her teeth together.

"Back off Temari," she snarled. "I don't need either of you telling me how to live my damned life." She turned away and began to walk away, but stopped before she got too far and turned. "By the way, if you had told me how you felt about him, then I would have respected that. Or at least asked you when he started to flirt and make passes at me."

Temari's reaction to hearing Shikamaru was hitting on Avery was almost terrifying. Her jealousy reached a level that even Kankuro was slinking away from her. She started to say something but couldn't think of anything. Her cheeks were red with fury and right when she started to think about acting out Avery just shook her head.

"Go home, I'll see you guys later," Avery brushed them off and orbed away.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

When Avery got to Kakashi's apartment later that night, she had managed to calm herself down enough that she didn't think her captain would see it. However, when she walked inside his apartment, the first thing he asked her was what was wrong.

She raised one thin blue eyebrow at him before she said, "Girl shit. I doubt you wanna go there."

Kakashi cocked his head to the side a little, but didn't push it as Avery strode passed him and took her seat on the couch. He sighed and walked over to sit in his own seat. By the time he looked up at her, she had crossed her legs and was playing with her nails in her lap. _That's her sign that she's preoccupied. She fidgets when she's upset._

"Are you sure you don't want to talk about it?"

"Let's just get on with the practice, Kakashi," she sighed.

Kakashi sighed and launched into their practice. When he finished his stories, Avery looked like she hadn't reacted at all the entire time. This could have been because she was getting better, as she was making improvements. Though, Kakashi had a feeling it was due to whatever was bothering her.

Avery was still playing with her hands. She had felt a slight pang during Rin's story, but it didn't tear her apart like normal. She smiled to herself, she was getting better. But…

"Sorry Kakashi, I guess I'm a bit distracted tonight."

"I could have told you that," Kakashi said sarcastically. "Do you finally want to talk about it?"

Avery gave him a bored look, "Would you like to talk about _Yamato_?"

Kakashi looked like he hadn't been expecting that. "What do you mean?"

Avery sighed, "Nothing… look I had a run in with some drama today that I honestly have no time for. We are about to go to war, it just plain doesn't matter. So no, I'd rather not make it a bigger deal than it has to be."

Kakashi sighed a little and nodded, "Alright. We are probably done for tonight though so you should go home and get some rest."

"Alright, goodnight," she said as she got up and left without another glance in his direction.

Kakashi watched her leave with both eyes open. Her energy, he could see it swirling around inside her with his Sharingan. It moved faster when she was mad, like it was zipping around as fast as her anger. She was right though, they didn't really have time for drama such as this.

 _But why did she bring up… She must know that I haven't been completely truthful about Tenzou._

He stood and shrugged it off. So what if she knew he was lying about his relationship with Tenzou; it didn't matter. There simply wasn't time for such things.

And there was no room for it on the battlefield.

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Author Note: This is probably my favorite chapter so far. As a reader of fanfic I like smut, and drama always makes for an interesting read. Thank you to my beta for helping me with the Kankuro and Avery bit, going as far to give me the laugh of reminding me about hooker paint… TWICE! That makes me chuckle every time!

If you guys don't remember hooker paint, it is from the first chapter. And with Temari calling him that… you have to know Avery would have told her while she lived in Suna about her thoughts on his face paint. I can just imagine them giggling over it.

Please don't forget to let me know how you guys like it! I really love the fact that people do seem to come back to read as it progresses!

Also…There's only a few chapters left until it stops being super canon. However… the last few chapters are SUPER canon. Bear with me!

Thanks again!


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or anything else referenced in this fic. Spoilers from the war. you've been warned.

Notes: I am really enjoying writing this! I would love to know what you all think too!

This chapter is very canon, but it focuses on Avery's experiences with the beginning of war.

The next couple chapters will be canon, but the next chapter after this one has an extremely important Avery story moment. So you at least have to tune in for that one.

 _Chapter Twelve_

 _War is coming…_

Avery felt ready for it, though she didn't want to feel the need to be ready. She had made enormous progress in her empathy training and she had been training with Lee in order to fine tune her hand-to-hand combat. She had honed all her abilities, pushing herself day after day to her limits and timing her energy regeneration.

She knew her abilities better now than she ever had before she came here.

While training with Lee, she also ended up training with Neji and Tenten quite a bit. She was enjoying getting to know them more than she had before and it was nice to know more people than the ones she already knew. As it was, the two people she had gotten to know most in this village were either not reachable, or not currently speaking to her. Or, rather she wasn't speaking to him.

Shikamaru had approached her a few days after her run in with Kankuro and Temari. She had smiled weakly at him, but basically told him that in this time of war, she didn't need senseless distractions.

"Look Shikamaru," she had said when he tried to argue. "What happened between us should not have happened, and I'm sorry. We both really should be focusing on the upcoming events, not this sexual tension bullshit we are making up between us."

He hadn't had a response for that and had said he respected her choice. She hadn't seen him since, not even walking around. They were both doing an extremely good job of avoiding each other.

She hadn't heard from Temari or Kankuro, not that she really expected to, since that day either. The whole matter was unimportant, she had decided, and she cast the thoughts away and focused on the war.

One day after Avery finished her training, Sakura came out to tell Avery Tsunade wanted to meet with her. Figuring it had something to do with the war; Avery went without hesitation to meet with the Lady Hokage. When she approached the door for Tsunade's office she knocked twice and opened the door when she heard Tsunade call to her.

"You wanted to see me ma'am?"

"Avery, yes. I have something for you," Tsunade said sitting back in her chair.

Avery looked up noticing Kakashi was in the room and then looked back to Tsunade, "What do you have?"

She gestured for her to look back to Kakashi and she noticed he had something behind him. He brought what he was hiding out for her to see and she gasped audibly in surprise. It was a set of standard leaf Jounin wear including a long sleeved black shirt with the red swirl symbol on each arm, a pair of black pants with bandage holster on the left leg, and what in Avery's opinion was the most shocking part, a dark green vest. Avery couldn't speak from the surprise she felt in that moment.

"But… I'm not a ninja, how can I wear a Jounin vest?"

"It's a special one; it was made specifically for you. As of this moment, you're an honorary Jounin for this village," Tsunade said standing up to walk to Kakashi. She lifted the vest from the top of the pile in Kakashi's arms and unfolded it, showing Avery the back. Right in the center of the red Uzushiogakure symbol was the symbol that was still faded into Avery's hand. The symbol had been hand stitched in a thick golden thread that made it very obvious in the pattern.

Tears sprang into Avery's eyes at the gesture. She was incredibly honored and shocked that Tsunade had even thought to do this for her, as well as had been able to. She reached forward to take the vest and ran her fingertips over the Triquetra symbol and she smiled. She then lurched forward and hugged Tsunade tightly.

"Thank you," she whispered.

"You're welcome. This is what you should be wearing for the war."

"Yes, absolutely."

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

It was the day they were to gather in their separate units; the allied shinobi forces were ready. With each village accounted for in their starting base out in the Land of Lightning, right on the very edge of Kumogakure, The Hidden Cloud village. Avery had never been here before. It was like being high in the mountains all the time, even though they hadn't really gone up that much in elevation. There were clouds hanging very low to the ground and all around the buildings with bridges between the bridges crossing the caverns between them. Many of the structures of the village were made of stone and rocks, making the village look even more like the most beautiful mountain range Avery had ever seen.

Avery stuck with leaf shinobi for the most part when they had gotten there, though she found herself missing a certain blonde with whisker markings on his face. She couldn't help but miss Naruto, especially when she couldn't talk to Shikamaru, and felt like she would rather rip her own hair out than talk to Kankuro and Temari; though she did find that she missed them too.

It was while she was sitting on the steps outside the command center where she knew the Kage and platoon leaders were meeting that Gaara saw her the first time that day. He had been getting air before the meeting (and going to grab a few Allied Shinobi Forces headbands) and saw her sitting by herself. His heart hurt for her because he, of course, had heard about what happened with Kankuro and Temari. He had been furious with Kankuro, making his older brother stay in his workshop for two days straight. Temari he hadn't been too angry at just because he knew something was coming eventually.

 _But right before war? My siblings really have the worst timing._

He decided he had a moment to spare, mostly because the other Kage would wait for him to come back inside and took a seat on the step next to Avery. She looked up at him and immediately smiled the same smile he had always loved seeing on her face.

"Gaara," she said happily and reached to hug him.

He wrapped his arms around her easily, "Avery, hello." He pulled away and looked into her eyes. He could see the pain and discomfort she was in being here, "You look good. I didn't know you got a Jounin vest," he said observing her new attire. He noticed the normal pattern on the back had her symbol in it. "How are you holding up?"

"I'm ready."

He smiled at her determination, but shook his head, "That's not what I meant."

Avery sighed and looked away from him, "They told you?"

"More like I made them tell me. I could tell something was wrong with them the second they got home," Gaara said calmly. "And it's a three day walk between villages."

"I'm trying very hard not to feel too angry about the whole thing, but Kankuro really struck a nerve."

"Yes, he's good at that."

They sat in silence for a minute then, both of them thinking the same thing.

"I have to kiss and make up with them before we get started," Avery said finally. "I would feel like total shit if they died while I was mad at them over something as stupid as a boy."

Gaara smiled gently at her, a smile he reserved specifically for her. "That is really up to you. I know Temari feels absolutely awful, she actually cried about how upset she knew you were about the whole thing. I don't think I've ever seen her cry that I can remember," Gaara said softly. "She wanted to say something when we got here but she backed down, claiming she didn't know what she would say."

Avery nodded a couple times before she turned to look at him, "I am really nervous about all this. I've never even considered what a war would look like, and this seems like it is going to be epic."

"Yes, it is a huge deal," Gaara agreed, "but you know as well as I that you can handle it. Kakashi said you've been training hard."

She nodded, "I don't want to let anyone down here."

"And you won't. You need to believe in yourself as much as I do. As much as Naruto does," he said and touched her face lightly.

She smiled a little and stood, "Lord Kazekage, you need to get back to your meeting."

Gaara nodded in agreement and also stood, "You're correct, I will just gather what I came out here for and go back inside."

Avery reached for him and gave him another hug, her arms tight around his neck, "Thank you."

He smiled and patted her on the back gently, "Anytime."

After talking to Gaara, Avery felt a little bit better about everything. She wasn't sure why, it wasn't like they talked about anything super major; but she knew Gaara was there for her no matter what. She definitely had friends in this world, and that would be her motivation in this war. She was determined to make a difference in this battle, and help save as many people as she could.

When it was time, she got her new allied forces headband. She hesitated when she made a move to put it on though with her new attire. Normally, her leaf village headband was tied around her waist over the top of the belt that held her kimono shut, but she had a Jounin uniform now. If she had put the headband on her waist, the vest would cover it and you wouldn't be able to see it. Realizing this, she decided the most logical place to put it was across her forehead where most people wore theirs.

She tied it under her hair so that her blue locks flowed over the top; her bangs sitting just over the metal plate. She took a breath at how right it felt being there and moved on to try to find someone she recognized enough to stand with in her platoon. She was in the third division, the short-to-mid-range battle division. She was just about to give up finding a friend in the division when she caught a glimpse of pink hair. _Sakura!_

She quickly scooted through some of the other shinobi in her division that she didn't know and finally reached the pink hair she had seen. Feeling coy, she snuck up behind her and grabbed her hand as she stood next to her.

"Avery!" Sakura squeaked with delight and hugged her friend. "I didn't know you were in this division."

"I didn't either until yesterday… Shikaku and Tsunade were having a hard time deciding where to place me."

"I can understand that, you can heal but you're also a great fighter, so."

"Well, that and they were considering the special units, due to me being so different."

"Well, that also makes sense, but I'm glad you're here."

"As am I! Let us be joined in this division and make sure we protect each other with the power of youth!" Lee shouted as he appeared behind Avery and Sakura.

"That's the spirit, Lee! Let the power of youth explode within you!" Gai said standing behind him with a giant smile on his face.

Avery and Sakura exchanged looks of mild amusement mixed with a 'holy shit they're crazy' expression. Avery liked Lee and Gai in a 'they're so weird but oddly relatable' way. But she also found them both highly amusing. She shrugged at Sakura and smiled to herself; there were worse things than dealing with the two matching men and their crazy personalities.

Looking around at the fourth division of shinobi, she realized there were also a group of people she recognized there. She saw the familiar long light brown hair of Choji, standing next to a spiky dark ponytail belonging to Shikamaru. It was the four blonde ponytails she saw next to Shikamaru that made her heart hurt a little to not be there with them; or at least be on good terms with them. She hadn't spoken to Shikamaru in over a week, and hadn't had the chance to speak to Temari about what happened. She would feel awful if something were to happen to them in this war.

It was then that everyone's attention was dragged forward. The doors at the top of the building in front of them had opened, and the five captains emerged. The captain of the first division was a bored looking cloud ninja with white hair and dark skin named Darui. The second was a large intense stone ninja with a stern expression named Kitsuchi. The third, the one Avery was in, was her own captain Kakashi, his familiar silver hair and mostly covered face was recognizable anywhere. The fourth was Gaara, and though the divisions were in order on the ground, he was standing in the middle of the captains because he was not only the fourth division captain; he was also the commander of all of the battle units. The fifth division's leader was a samurai warrior Avery did not know the name of, nor had she ever met the man.

As everyone in the five divisions were standing there, waiting for their captains to speak, Avery could feel tension rising even without her empathy power. Somewhere in the crowd she could hear two men arguing; then another two men somewhere else. Fights were breaking out within the divisions between feuding villages. Sakura and Avery looked at each other with worried expressions.

"It's hard for people in our line of work to forget their bitterness against another village sometimes," Sakura said softly.

"I can understand that," Avery started and looked around, tempted to probe around with her empathy power but not wanting to overwhelm herself even with all her practice. "But this is war, how are we supposed to win if we can't even get along?"

As Avery finished saying that, small clouds of sand came swirling down to separate each set of feuding shinobi. Everyone's attention snapped back to the captains as Gaara was standing there with his arm out, his presence commanding the attention of his battle units.

He then began to speak. Avery smiled hearing him, he always spoke so eloquently and emotionally, it touched Avery's heart to see him this way. She saw the man he was becoming, and it was something to make her more proud than she could even imagine.

 _Temari, I can't even imagine how you must feel right now._

Gaara's words graced over the brief fact of life as a shinobi, dealing with conflict and a lust for power. He moved gracefully through his speech, turning to a fight between him and Naruto from years ago. He spoke as only a fellow jinchuriki, or former in Gaara's case, could; speaking of the pain it causes and the hatred they often get stuck feeling because of their demon spirits inside them. Now the Akatsuki were after the jinchuriki, after Naruto.

"There can be no enemies here, as we have all been affected by the Akatsuki: the sand, the stone, the leaf, the mist, and the cloud. So now, there are only Shinobi!"

It seemed like everyone snapped to attention at that point; Avery could feel the difference around her and smiled to herself.

"And if you're still unable to forgive the sand, then you can come face me after this war is over!" Gaara's voice was commanding and emotional. "If that friend I spoke of falls into the hands of our enemies we are finished! We cannot allow this to happen! I want to protect my friend, as well as the entire world!"

Murmurs of excitement flowed through the crowd as they all revved their excitement at Gaara's words. Avery smiled at her comrades and saw the expression on Lee's face. It was full of respect and amazement at the Kazekage; an expression Avery was sure was also etched on her own face. She didn't know why, but she hadn't been expecting it on Lee's face.

"Though I am young and inexperienced… So I ask you, all of you, help me protect my friend! Please, lend me your strength for this battle!"

Murmurs turned to cheers as everyone reacted to Gaara's powerful words. Each set of shinobi that had been quarrelling turned and apologized; realizing they were all in the wrong for their actions. Now was not the time for village drama, it was time to band together. Avery could not have been prouder of Gaara at that moment.

"He really is something," Avery said softly and Sakura nodded.

Avery tentatively let her empathy slip over to Temari, wondering how the pride of his actual sister rivaled her own. Temari's pride was swelling within her at her brother, and Avery knew, she was thinking the same thing as she was.

"All those that feel as I do, follow me!" Gaara commanded, followed by unified cheering. It was as simple as that, they were ready to move out.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

With the commando unit out ahead laying out the first set of attacks, Gaara and Kakashi moved their units out. The two units ran together for a while before they split apart, Kakashi's unit going to lay low in the areas around the commando unit in order to be available for back up as well as defense on a larger scale.

"Avery, you're with me," Kakashi told her while they were travelling. She had nodded, understanding that she was going to be helping him as back up anywhere possible. Backup would be essential, especially in the beginning where they needed to make as much ground as possible in order to increase the chances of success.

They had gotten into a good position to wait in. The large unit had to split into multiple smaller teams in order to be able to provide the best cover possible. Avery stayed with Kakashi, crouching next to him when they were in place with Sakura at her other side. She knew Lee and Gai were also with them as well as a few other shinobi from her division she didn't know.

They could hear fighting happen when they got to where they were waiting and it made Avery itchy to join in; though she wasn't sure why. Fighting wasn't necessarily something she wanted to do, it was more that she knew her comrades were being attacked and might need help. Especially knowing Kankuro and Sai were over there. Even though she and Kankuro were not speaking, she didn't want him to die.

"Calm, Avery," Kakashi commanded quietly. "When they need our help they'll signal."

Avery nodded and kept herself still as they silently waited. It wasn't too terribly much longer before they saw a red haze rising into the air from the direction of the fighting.

"That red haze is our signal, let's go."

Their partial unit moved swiftly forward; advancing toward their comrades who needed help with whoever they were fighting. Avery remembered the intel they had received about their enemy's army. A portion of it was made up of shinobi that had already died and were now being reanimated. It made Avery unsure of if her comrades would recognize someone they fought, knowing she hadn't been around long enough to possibly actually recognize someone herself.

As they got closer, it was Avery, Kakashi, Lee, and Gai were in the front of the pack. They could see four shinobi standing before Sai, Omoi, and the third ninja from the leaf Avery had never met. He was also very young and slightly behind Sai as they stood before their opponents. Avery, of course, didn't recognize any of the reanimations in front of them.

Kakashi however…

Right as the four shinobi ran at their comrades, the four advancing burst through into the small clearing with kunai in their hands and met the four with a loud clang of metal on metal. Lee and Gai were defending on each far end while Kakashi and Avery were in the middle. Each of the reanimated shinobi looked completely like normal people except their eyes. The sclera was black instead of white behind their colored irises.

It was when the boy Avery was clashed against gasped, staring at Kakashi that she realized he knew him.

"Kakashi! You're a life saver!"

"Don't start cheering yet, these shinobi will all be extremely difficult to defeat," Kakashi said without looking away from the extremely intense man he was clashed against.

"I knew we'd be forced to fight… but I never imagined it would be against you, Kakashi," the man spoke from behind his bandage mask in a rough voice. His headband was on sideways with short black hair and black clothes.

Avery stole a glance toward Kakashi though she was unable to see his face. She probed him with her empathy and felt the way he knew them. They had been enemies a long time ago that had had an emotional ending.

"That day on the bridge, you were supposed to send me to hell," the man said. "When I came to I was with Haku… it seems this is neither heaven nor hell."

"This is the land of the living! You're not supposed to be here," Kakashi said vehemently. "You've been brought here by the reanimation jutsu."

The enemy was appalled someone would even do such a thing. Avery could feel the anger coming off of him as he spoke to Kakashi. The crowd of their division was behind them including Sakura, waiting for Kakashi's signal.

"Zabuza… Haku…" Sakura said softly. She knew them too.

The two Kakashi and Avery were against looked toward Sakura when she spoke. "Ah," Zabuza said seeing her, "you've grown up. Kakashi's little kunoichi… and how is the other lad doing?"

 _They know Naruto too…_

The look that crossed Haku's face as they were talking was one of extreme sorrow. Kakashi began to tell them about how Naruto had progressed in his training and in his life. He had become a hero to the village; Avery smiled little hearing the affection in Kakashi's voice as he spoke of his former student.

"He's become an amazing shinobi," Kakashi finished.

"Then, he'll continue to grow," Haku said softly.

Just then a haze appeared around Zabuza and Haku; the other two had pillars of something that looked like steam or something coming from them. Zabuza's haze was purple and black, billowing out of him like smoke, while Haku's was blue and surrounded him completely. They all looked like they were in pain and Kakashi made a move for them to get back.

The four hopped back toward their team and watched as the four reanimated shinobi. "Kakashi, you must…stop us," Zabuza said. The haze left them all and they were left standing there with the same black eyes but their irises were white now.

"They're gone, now they are just weapons our enemy will use against us," Kakashi said and he prepared for them to come at them. Avery listened as her teammates discussed who each of them were. The woman on the end was named Pakura, she could use the scorch style, a kekkei genkai only those from her clan could do. It was like the Sharingan or Byakugan. The man on the other end was Gari, his kekkei genkai was explosion style. Haku had the ice style, and Zabuza was known as the demon of the hidden mist. This would be a tough battle; Avery knew she needed to keep on her toes.

Zabuza made the first move, casting a thick mist around the battle zone. Kakashi instructed everyone into a defensive position even though he knew this jutsu would be extremely difficult if not impossible to defend against it. He had his back to Gai, Sakura, and Lee, with Avery in another grouping of four not too far away. He was explaining how the jutsu worked, and with every word he could feel everyone's tension rising as they waited. When he heard the cry of terror he knew what was happening.

"It's starting, everyone stay alert!" Kakashi called out.

Avery looked around frantically; she couldn't see or hear a thing. The mist was so heavy she could feel it wetting her skin and hair as she searched. She knew her empathy wouldn't help now that the reanimated shinobi's personalities were gone, but she had to try to find where their enemies were coming from. With the mist being Zabuza's doing, she wanted to find him first so they could get out of the mist quickly.

She could hear their comrades getting attacked all around them. She watched a cloud ninja get blasted by Gari and another cloud ninja went running at the explosion style user. Avery panicked and threw her hand out and knocked him off course right as Gai and Lee kicked the enemy away from their comrade.

"Comrades are going to die; you cannot allow that to cloud your judgment!" Gai scolded the young shinobi.

Avery let out a sigh of relief that Gai and Lee were alright, and she looked around trying to find Zabuza. She knew they needed to get to him quickly.

"Avery! Help Sakura heal!" Kakashi told her as he worked to defend their team.

Avery gasped and realized what she could easily be doing to help since she couldn't find the enemy. She let her empathy stretch over the battlefield and darted toward each of the emotional signatures she could register pain through. Quickly getting around and helping Sakura heal anyone she could get to. She could hear Kakashi and the others fighting as she tried to focus on what she was doing.

She finished healing one man and as he rested a minute to catch his breath she jumped up and looked for the next injured comrade. She got distracted by the two reanimated shinobi that had slammed their hands on the ground in that moment and stopped to watch what was happening.

"Summoning jutsu," they said together.

Six large wooden boxes, almost like coffins, rose out of the ground and one by one the front fell off to reveal they each had another reanimated shinobi inside. She looked to Kakashi who was completely in shock by what he was seeing.

"Kakashi, who are they?"

"Well, with Zabuza, they make up the most deadly members of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist," Kakashi said gravely.

The new additions pulled a scroll out and summoned their weapons and joined in the fighting. She knew their target would still first and foremost be Zabuza because they couldn't see or hear. Kakashi quickly put together a plan and turned to Avery. "Keep helping anyone you can, leave this to me," Kakashi said to her and she nodded once. He ran forward putting the plan into motion and Avery turned to go protect her comrades.

She was healing a stone shinobi when she could feel one of the newest additions to the reanimated shinobi team coming at her. The new enemies still had their personalities. _They're all so cold hearted,_ she felt the frustration of the shinobi she had just blocked from hitting her and the ninja she had been healing. She stood and turned toward the enemy waiting for him to come at her again.

The reanimated shinobi ran at her with his giant sword. He had a sword that had paper bombs on it that would explode when he wanted. She dodged one swig and threw her hand out, blasting him backward before she called for his sword. It orbed from his hands and appeared in hers before she used her left hand to blow him up. She probed around the area and felt a pang of fear from a group of her comrades and she dashed forward and threw the exploding sword at the shinobi advancing on her team. He and the other reanimated man would take a few minutes to reappear now.

When Avery felt Kakashi's pain and shock from what he was going through, she turned to see his arm through Haku's body. She knew at that moment their training definitely paid off because this would have overwhelmed her before. Through Kakashi's emotions she could tell this is how Haku had really died; by saving Zabuza. Avery closed her eyes a moment before she orbed behind Zabuza and as he went to swing at Kakashi, she pushed him into the shadow Kakashi had around him from the shadow user they had on their team and he froze. At that point, their sand shinobi that was prepared to seal them came running forward to seal them away.

As soon as they were gone, the mist cleared up and they could see their enemies. But as soon as the mist was gone, the reanimated shinobi also left. Everyone relaxed a little and Kakashi laid a hand on Avery's shoulder, "good work kid."

Avery smiled, "Thank you, captain."

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Kakashi's team continued on through the woods with no attacks. Sakura and Avery had been called away to go help the medical team before they could get too much farther with Kakashi's team. Once they got to the medical unit, Shizune had given them their assignments. Sakura was to work on people brought to them as her medical specialties included emergency and surgery. Avery's assignment was to go and find abandoned shinobi that had been injured and left behind that she could still save. She was to help them in order to get them back to the medical division and not use too terribly much energy healing. She was only to do as much healing as was necessary to get them back to the medical unit safely. They would take care of them from there.

Avery took her assignment and ran with it. She ran out far enough from the medical unit that she wouldn't be distracted by the injured people there and started stretching her empathy out to find anyone in pain or trepidation. Once she found someone she could feel fear waving off of she ran toward their location, not wanting to orb as it would take too much energy if she did it too much.

She had retrieved multiple comrades that had been left behind from their injuries back to the medical division and was searching for more when she heard someone shouting for help. She probed her empathy in the direction she heard the man's voice from and felt a cold heart along few people that were still alive, but barely.

She ran off in the direction she heard the screaming coming from as quickly as she could. She wasn't sure she was going to make it in time to save any of them, especially with the enemy still there tormenting them. As Avery came closer, she could hear explosions coming from the same direction she was already running. That told her the reanimated shinobi with the big bomb sword was at least one of the enemies ahead of her.

She kept running and could hear the clangs of heavy metal clashing together. She reached where she had felt the presence of living comrades still around, but by the time she had gotten there, they were all dead. She sighed as tears stung her eyes for her fallen comrades, but when she heard another large explosion she turned sharply. She still had comrades out here that were fighting. She needed to get to them, so she pushed herself toward where she heard the noises coming from. Once she got close enough she could see what was happening, she hopped up into a tree to see the battle.

Gai and Kakashi were engaged in battle between two of the ninja swordsmen weirdoes. It seemed like they were doing alright, being lifelong friends they had learned to fight together well. Avery strained to see and noticed that it looked like Kakashi's eye was closed, he couldn't see currently. They each took their opening and managed to attack their enemies, delaying them as they had to regenerate.

Avery could feel the sealing team approaching, and knew there was a shadow user in there with them. She jumped down from the tree she was in and ran around the crater they were all standing in as the explosion sword ninja was preparing a huge attack. She threw her arm out and threw both shinobi directly into the shadow paralysis that had been coming for them and the sealing team swooped in to seal them away.

Avery came to a stop between Kakashi and Gai, where Kakashi's eye was still closed. She reached up to him and held her hand over his face as her gold healing light appeared, healing his eyes. He opened his one uncovered eye and blinked rapidly before he realized who was standing in front of him.

"Avery! Where did you come from?"

"And I thought you had a keen sense of smell Kakashi, I arrived just before the sealing team," she teased lightly.

Gai just smiled and gave her a thumb up, "Better late than never! Though I have no doubt that the comrade combo would have been able to hold them off before the sealing team got here!"

"The what?"

"Never mind," Kakashi said shaking his head. "Come on, we need to go help the other teams."

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Note: I know that canon can be boring, but hang with me guys. There is only a few more chapters until part 2 starts ! :3


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or anything else mentioned!

Warnings: Spoilers from war era.

BIG AVERY MOMENT IN THIS CHAPTER. It's early on so if you're trying to avoid spoilers then read the second section of this chapter. it might be worth the read.

As always I'd love to hear what you all think! Thanks and enjoy! ^^

This is the longest chapter so far...

Also for all you folks in america happy independence day. and happy wednesday for everyone else!? :D

 _Chapter Thirteen_

Avery stuck with Gai and Kakashi as they went to back up another unit that had requested help. The team had been fighting against the female ninja swordsmen shinobi that used the lightning style. On their way, they had seen a few flashes of lightning, and knowing their opponents fighting style, they all figured it was likely that it was her attacking the team they were going to back up. Once they arrived on scene it was obvious they had been correct. The trees and land around the blast area was completely deadened from the lightning.

They continued on in the direction they figured it was most likely they would find the survivors of the unit they were running to back up. Avery stayed close to Kakashi as they ran with Gai and the sealing team. The further they pushed, the worse the outcome seemed. The reanimated enemy was pushing their comrades in a direction that there were no other divisions, meaning away from help.

They came across someone that was still alive, he told them where his other comrades they had left were and that Ameyuri Ringo, the reanimated lighting user, was on their tail. Avery quickly healed him and someone stayed with him while he continued to rest and the rest of the team pushed forward. Avery broke away from Kakashi and Gai in order to find the rest of the survivors from the lightning sword user's attacks.

Kakashi and Gai had met up with Sai and Lee on the way forward and Kakashi ordered Sai was surveying in the air for Omoi, as he was the only one left they hadn't found. Once they found him Sai had pulled him out of the mud pit they found him in. Sai and Kakashi helped Avery get the injured shinobi to the medical division before they moved on toward the other units.

Gai, Kakashi and Avery were travelling on the same bird as they were heading back toward the battle front; toward the other units. Kakashi and Gai were discussing how amazing it was that the young shinobi around them were proving themselves to become more than they are. It was during this discussion she felt her two companions stiffen and she realized they were hearing something she wasn't.

"You hear that, Kakashi?"

"Yeah, seems they're finally coming."

"What is it?"

"The heroes we've been waiting for," he said looking back at her with a wink.

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Kakashi's team continued to hunt down the reanimated mist ninjas and got another of them sealed away. Sai worked hard on drawing his tiger seal as Lee and the rest of the team worked to defend him. Avery had broken off from the team again when they got back into the range of the battle. She needed to complete her mission for the medical division before she got too distracted with fighting.

She ran through the woods, sensing out around her for anyone who was injured when she felt a cold presence running at her. It was the huge man from the ninja swordsmen with the long orange red hair and green markings on his face. He attacked her as she ran, coming at her from the side. She had only narrowly been able to avoid a serious blow, but did suffer a gash across her back where he had managed to cut her with the kunai in his hand. He didn't have a sword, and it made Avery wonder why.

"Come back girly, let's play a game," he said in a creepy low voice.

 _Eww, yeah no thanks,_ she thought as she ran into the trees, zig zagging between them in an attempt to get far enough ahead of him he lost sight of her; but he kept right on her tail. She jumped up into a tree and immediately started going backward from where she had been going, only to have him throw his kunai with chakra surrounding it through the tree she was about to land on causing it to fall and she lost her footing.

She landed on her feet on the ground and turned just in time to throw her arm out, tossing her enemy back into a tree. She lurched forward and pulled a kunai out of the pouch on her hip, attacking him head on. Her enemy just laughed darkly as he wove a few hand signs. "Ninja art; hair needles," his dangerously low, cunning voice said. His hair then started standing on end like a porcupine's quills when it felt threatened. Without warning, his hair began shooting hair needles at her. She gasped as one cut her face and her arm before she threw her blue shield up in front of her.

While she was defending herself from his attack he had gotten to his feet and was coming for her again. He ran to her and fueled his chakra into his hand, striking her shield. Much like Neji's attack that day long ago, the chakra only fueled her shield. Her enemy was clearly frustrated, as he had expected the shield to crack and break under the tremendous power behind his punch and he punched it again, and again, and again. Avery realized her shield was humming from the amount of chakra he had pumped into it and she smirked.

"Alright, you want the shield gone, here you go," she said and watched him ready to attack her. She released the shield and watched as it exploded again, blasting her enemy back through several tree trunks, but also blasting herself backward. She was trying to figure out the best way to stop herself when her back hit something solid, but soft to the touch.

The object she had hit wrapped around her before lowering her safely to the ground. She looked down to realize that what had wrapped around her had been someone's arms. _I hit a person! Someone caught me? Who else is out here?_ She hadn't felt anyone else around, not that she had really been looking very hard. As soon as she was released from the other person's arms, she turned on them to see who it was.

She turned and looked directly into the deep red and black eyes of the Sharingan. That meant he was an Uchiha, whoever he was. The first thing she noticed, after his eyes that is, was how attractive he was. He had long black hair he kept in a loose ponytail at the base of his head, with his bangs hanging around his face with a centre-part. He had deep tear-troughs in his face that made him look wise and a very serious, deadly expression. His sclera was black, like the reanimations.

 _Ah shit, he's reanimated… that doesn't make any sense, why did he help me?_

She jumped away from the striking Uchiha and raised her kunai again. "I'll fight you too, don't underestimate me," she warned as she prepared to attack. She felt for the other enemy, but the blast had caused him some damage, he needed to regenerate. She had a few minutes to deal with the newcomer alone.

To her absolute shock, he raised his hands in a surrendering position. "I mean you no harm," he said. His voice was deep and sounded like a velvet waterfall of power. It was the kind of voice that commanded respect and authority.

It was without a doubt the sexiest thing she had ever heard.

She lowered her kunai and stood straight watching the man lower his hands. She searched her mind for why he looked familiar, because he did look extremely familiar. She couldn't place who he looked like, or why she would know him. Right when she thought she almost could have remembered he spoke again and it wiped her mind clear.

"Where did the enemy go?"

Her heart thumped uncomfortably hard as he stepped closer. _Holy shit Avery get a hold of yourself_ , she thought as she tore her eyes away from her handsome stranger and looked toward the other shinobi's body. "He's there," she said as his body finished regenerating with a sinister sneer playing across his thin lips. He bared his pointed teeth at her as he hissed his anger and he prepared to attack.

"We need a sealing," her stranger said softly. His smooth voice sent a wave of heat run from her head to her fingers and toes. _What the hell is wrong with me?_

"I might have something actually," she said breathlessly. She shook her head and tried to get a grip and focused on the large shinobi coming at them. "Though I need time to prepare," she said.

"Leave it to me," he said and stepped forward. He closed his eyes and right as the other man went to attack him he burst into a flock of crows.

Avery gawked at the strange Uchiha as he stepped forward to fight, gasping when he turned into a giant flock of crows. He walked up behind the shinobi in question with a kunai in hand and attacked. Avery realized she was supposed to be doing something. She gripped her kunai firmly and quickly began her plan. She dragged the tip of her kunai through the dirt, efficiently drawing a Triquetra symbol like the faded one on her right palm. Once she had done that, she drew the element symbols at north, south, east, and west. Once she was finished she backed up and looked to see where her stranger had gone, he was still fighting the other shinobi, neither of them able to die.

She took a deep breath and put her hands together in front of her. She closed her eyes and poured her energy into the spell she was creating. She could almost feel the elements around her as she fused her energy. The wind in her hair, earth beneath her feet, water misting her face, and fire lapping heatedly at her skin as the spirit power pooled in her hands. She opened her eyes to see each of the symbols glowing in the earth. It was ready.

"What was released now be sealed. By the wind, by the earth, by the water, by the fire, by the spirit. All be bound, and dispel."

Each symbol created a pillar of light that reached to the sky. The air around them whirled and whipped at their clothes and at the trees as the spell created an opening into the void for the reanimated shinobi's soul. He shouted as each of the pillars of light shot at him, piercing his body and dragging him toward the center of Avery's diagram. In a brilliant flash of light, the air stilled and the light disappeared, leaving the soulless reanimated body laying there on a seemingly untouched earth; Avery's drawing having disappeared with his soul.

Avery held a hand to her head for a second as a wave of exhaustion rolled through her. That took quite a bit out of her; she would need to take it easy for a little while. She turned to her handsome stranger to see him watching wide eyed. He had clearly never seen anything like that before in his life, which didn't surprise Avery. No one had really seen anything like her in this world.

She stepped forward, watching his face as she approached. She still couldn't place who he was, though she felt like she should know. She dismissed the thought as she prepared to thank him. "I wouldn't have been able to do that without your help, thank you," she said holding her hand out to him.

He lifted his red eyes to her purple ones, a small smirk playing at the corners of his mouth. He lifted his hand and placed it in hers, and when his skin touched hers, she saw a flash of an image from her first mission.

"Oh!" she cried as she lost control of her body for a moment and fell forward into the Uchiha's arms.

"Are you alright?" he asked her, concern lacing his beautiful voice.

"You're Itachi," she whispered. The flash of an image she saw was the end of the battle between him and Sasuke. The same image she had seen before when she was trying to tell what had happened there; her first mission.

He nodded once, "How do you know who I am?" he asked softly.

"I felt you. I felt your presence, and then I saw you. Months ago, when you fought Sasuke," she mumbled.

Itachi's expression turned to one of grief, "The day I died."

"Yes," she said weakly. "We were trying to find you, trying to find Sasuke."

Itachi helped her to sit and watched her put her head between her knees as she tried to breathe. The premonition had rocked the remaining energy she had and made her feel weak and dizzy. She would need to rest for a little bit before she could continue on.

"I have to go, I must stop the reanimation," he said then.

 _That's right, he's reanimated._ She looked up at him, his Sharingan eyes surrounded by the black from being a reanimation. "How are you acting of your own will?"

"It's a long story, one I don't have time for now. Just know that what I am and what I do, it has always been for the leaf village," his perfect voice was marred with sadness as he thought of the village he had to leave behind in order to protect it. Even in his death he would protect that village even if it meant shattering his soul.

Avery searched his face for the truth of his words, she saw it shining in his eyes and she smiled at him. "Go, and good luck."

"Thank you, but I don't know your name."

"It's Avery," she said.

"Avery," her name sounded like it was dripping gold coming off his tongue. It made her mouth go dry and her eyes glaze over. He looked into her strange purple eyes a moment before he gently pressed his lips between two thin blue eyebrows.

Then he was gone, and Avery was alone.

She touched her forehead absently, the place his lips had been were burning so hot she wasn't convinced she wouldn't feel it forever. Why did she have to have such a strong reaction to a dead man? _What kind of fucked up…never mind_ she sighed as she put her head back between her knees. She was doomed to hopeless romance and she knew it.

After she gathered enough energy back to be able to go and help again, she finished her rounds through the trees. Once she determined there was no one out here in need of her help, she doubled back to help Kakashi and the rest of her original team.

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Kakashi's team was in the midst of battling a horde of White Zetsu when Avery reached them. Avery immediately joined in the fight and fought her hardest to keep her comrades safe; all while she was trying to keep everyone healed. The White Zetsu army had taken to completely copying the allied forces ninja in order to trick them so Avery hadn't been able to get many people back to the medical division anymore. The armies of the strange white bodies were causing some trouble for most of the battle units as they were able to completely copy someone's appearance, smell, and chakra signature. Avery couldn't tell them apart, but they also couldn't copy her accurately.

A few of them had tried but they learned quickly that it was not possible. She took them down quickly and continued to fight alongside her original team. It was then that a clone of Naruto had shown up with the ever so helpful ability to be able to tell who the fake shinobi were.

After they had eliminated the last of the threats around them, Avery turned and stared at Naruto. He looked the same, but also completely different. His body was completely engulfed in orange light with the warmth of a wildfire coming from it as he fought. In fact, when he struck the White Zetsu, they erupted into full size trees. _Fucking trees!_ It appeared to increase his strength dramatically as well and he was all smiles and confidence as he faced her.

"What is this new form?" she asked in awe.

"It's Nine-Tails state. It's like that cloak I used to get except I am in control of it now so it doesn't hurt me anymore."

"How did-?"

"We don't really have time for this now," Kakashi cut off Avery's question.

"Kakashi-Sensei is right, I have to go. I am going to find out who the man in the mask is. We know now that he is not Madara," Naruto said clenching his fist. "A reanimated Madara showed up on one of the battlefields, so now I am going to confront the masked man."

"Tobi?"

"Yeah," Naruto said with a thoughtful look on his face.

"Go, Naruto. We'll come back you up as soon as we can," Kakashi said and Avery nodded.

"Right! See you soon then!" Naruto said and with that his clone disappeared.

Avery turned to Kakashi and Gai as another wave of White Zetsu came from over the horizon with one of the reanimated shinobi from earlier. He had shaggy white hair and pointed teeth with a blank stare on his face.

"He's the last of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen left," Kakashi said as he stepped up to stand next to Avery.

"Alright, let's get him," Avery said and they launched into battle. They had taken down quite a few more of the white man army and Avery could tell Kakashi and Gai were getting restless. She turned after taking down a couple more Zetsu to see Sai and Lee were getting ready to seal away the last ninja.

It was then that Kakashi and Gai got the order to go help Naruto. Kakashi turned to Avery before they left and gripped her shoulder. "Help them finish here, heal everyone you can, and then come join us. I have a feeling we'll need you."

Avery looked up into Kakashi's mismatched eyes. She nodded as she understood what his order meant. He was leaving the responsibility of what happened here on this battlefield to her. The simple movement filled her with a strong sense of faith and trust from her captain.

"Yes, Captain Kakashi," she said nodding once. "I will be there soon."

With that Kakashi and Gai departed to go help Naruto and Bee. Avery turned back to the task at hand. The main focus of her assignment was to get the rest of these enemies eliminated, the last reanimated shinobi on this battlefield sealed, and for her to heal everyone so they can get to the medical division.

 _Alright, let's do this._

Avery launched into the fight and jumped between a group of the White Zetsu and her comrades that didn't see them coming. She threw her blue shield up and as each of the Zetsu struck it, they just rebounded off of it. She lowered it once they backed away and she blew up the one standing in the middle before she pulled a kunai out of her pack and slashed the one on the right before twirling and stabbing the one on the left. The group of her comrades thanked her quickly before jumping back into the fight.

Avery saw that the Zetsu count was down to almost none, so she turned to see how Sai and Lee were doing. Sai needed more time and Lee was busy keeping the Zetsu and the reanimate shinobi off of his friend. Avery ran over and took on the reanimated shinobi, blowing him up, or kicking, or throwing him. She was doing anything to keep him away from Lee and Sai as long as she could.

She heard Sai shout out to her and she backed up as his ink tiger jutsu swooped in front of her and grabbed the mist ninja and sealed him away. Avery walked back toward them and told Sai to rest a moment, as many of the Zetsu were gone. She decided it was time to focus on healing anyone that was injured. She took the time to heal everyone enough that they could either continue to fight or get to the medical division.

Once she was finished, it was time to go join Kakashi and Gai. Naruto needed her.

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Kakashi couldn't believe what he was seeing as Naruto single handedly made the masked ninja recall all five of the remaining tailed beasts. He was so different now than he had been, and it was obvious that he and Kurama were on better terms. And at the same time he was doing this, he was also protecting Gai and Kakashi along with it!

 _He's gotten so strong._

Naruto's tailed beast mode ended and the masked man jeered at him, but it never made Naruto back down. He just threw the words right back at the mysterious ninja that was obviously not actually Madara now.

"Look at Naruto go, he's gained so much power it is making me feel old and feeble," Gai said with a look of admiration.

"What is going on? That doesn't sound like you at all! I hate to say this but, the springtime of our youth is far from over, Gai. We still have a lot of stuff to do," Kakashi teased but was also totally serious.

"Oh you be quiet, do you want me to feel worse?"

"There's the Gai I know," Kakashi said as he rolled his eyes.

"Are you two done with your old man talk?" Avery teased as she emerged in blue and white lights. She took a deep breath as she felt her energy take a hit, but she wasn't backing down. Not yet, not when she still needed to protect Naruto.

"Avery, you're here! That will be sure to help!" Naruto said with a huge smile toward her before he faced the masked man again.

Tobi had a different mask now, it was white and black and both eyes were exposed now. It was also covering the top of his head as well and he was wearing a plain black robe.

Avery turned and looked behind her at the…absolutely huge…octopus? She wasn't sure what she was looking at and realized it must be the eight tailed beast. Bee was one of the few jinchuriki that could successfully go into tailed beast state because he and his beast were friendly with each other. She turned forward again and took in what the masked man was standing on; it was a giant wooden statue looking thing with ten eyes.

"It's called the Gedo Statue. It is what the masked shinobi is keeping the tailed beasts in," Kakashi explained, taking in Avery's confused expression. She nodded as she kept her eyes forward.

Tobi jumped down off his perch atop the Gedo Statue. He summoned a couple of pot like objects that the statue ate before he made a few hand signs and the statue went insane. He declared then that he was resurrecting the ten tails.

"What? I thought he couldn't do that as long as he didn't have all the tailed beasts!" Avery said as the air around them began to whip around, throwing dirt and rock through the air with the intensity of it.

"He may have a piece of Eighto's octopus leg from back in the day," Bee said from his tailed beast.

"So just a piece is sufficient then?" Kakashi asked aloud, though it was clear he was just talking things through himself. Avery was watching him, waiting for him to continue with his thought process when a new, much deeper voice sounded in the air.

"If just a piece of chakra is sufficient, then he also has some of mine as well," the voice said. It was coming from Naruto but his mouth wasn't moving.

"That's the nine tails, he'll explain through Naruto. They're real tight now, you know!" Bee assured them.

Kurama took the time to explain what the two objects Tobi had fed to the statue were. They were ancient tools from the time of the Sage of the Six Paths. Avery had heard of him from her comrades, he was the creator of ninja, but his existence was legendary. Gai was unsure any of it really made sense, or mattered, but as they all listened to the fox's explanations, it was obvious it had to be true.

"Though with just a piece of eight tails and my own chakra, who knows what form the ten tails will take," Kurama finished.

Kakashi gripped his wrist preparing for his chidori, "We need to strike the Gedo Statue before the ten tails can take form."

"Kakashi," Tobi called out to the copy ninja, "you speak your mind far too easily. A life of regret is far too fitting for a man like you."

Avery gasped lightly hearing this. She had her empathy off this whole time, but she turned it on and pushed it toward Tobi. He was guarded, but one thing was clear.

"Bastard, who the hell are you anyway?!" Gai shouted in defense of his friend.

"And what would be the point of telling someone who doesn't remember faces?"

 _He knows them._

The emotion swirling around in Tobi was strong but unclear. Hateful, angry, sad… he felt a range of emotions. He was both bad and good at concealing his true feelings, as she could tell what the emotions he felt were, but he was suppressing their causes. Though the pang of suspicious anger that rang through Kakashi's body told Avery he had a guess as to who the masked man could be. But it was impossible.

"Kakashi, we need to act now before it's too late," Kurama said as Naruto's body stepped forward. He paused a moment before he continued to tell of the terrors the ten tails had been known for. He spoke of the ten tails as if he had known him. "He has the collective chakra power of all nine tailed beasts; I could never hope to defeat him on my own."

They all paused a little as a grave feeling washed over them.

"However, if he only has a piece of eight tails and myself, the two strongest of the nine tailed beasts, it might be worth a try."

"You're all mistaken, I don't need the full capacity of ten tails for my plan to work," Tobi said before he prattled on about his plan. He was to create an ultimate genjutsu, one that would create a dream world for all shinobi to inhabit. There would be no more war and no need for hope because it would fulfill the impossibility of "true" peace. _As if_ , Avery thought with a scowl on her face.

Naruto was back, a look of fierce determination on his face. He spoke of his father, mother, and his mentor Jiraiya, pride swelling in his heart as he threw the masked man's confidence right back at him. "I will become the greatest Hokage! That is my dream and I won't give up on it, you fool!"

"Tch," Gai grunted as he prattled on something about youth. "Dreams have to come to an end at some point."

"Yes, dreams must be fulfilled," Kakashi stated.

It was then Bee was rapping something ridiculous about his dreams of women's bodies that Avery rolled her eyes. When he was finished she stepped forward, "If you still have a heartbeat, there's still time for your dreams."

"You lose sight of the truth through individuality," Tobi said confidently. Avery could feel Naruto's anger rising within him as Tobi continued to speak. Once his last words had fallen off his tongue, Naruto erupted in orange light. With a rasengan in hand, he launched himself at Tobi.

Avery lurched a little bit forward as she watched Naruto sail toward their enemies. Though she had originally thought he was going for Tobi, she realized he was actually aimed for the Gedo Statue. Tobi threw his gunbai fan up and stopped Naruto's rasengan effortlessly, making Naruto decide he needed to take care of the mask first.

Naruto made a shadow clone and created a mini tailed beast bomb, which just looked like a little black ball to Avery. If she hadn't been able to feel the chakra coming from it she would have thought it was just a ball. As he did this, Kakashi and Gai warned him of their opponent's abilities, reminding him he needed to attack when he materialized or it would be useless.

"Yeah, I know. That's what the clone is for," Naruto said before he and his clone ran at Tobi.

Watching this, Gai reached into his pouch and pulled out some red nun chucks on thick chains. With those ready, he ran to help Naruto.

"Master Bee, can you lift us up high?"

"No problem-o!" Bee said as he allowed Kakashi and Avery to step onto his eight tails form's hand. "Up you go, weeeeee!"

Avery watched Naruto and Gai fight Tobi as they went up. She kept watching until there was a particularly close call, she waved her arm to move Tobi off course, but Gai was already attacking.

"Can you reach this far?" Kakashi asked.

"I don't know about pinpointed attacks, but I am going to try to keep an eye on them."

"What about the statue?"

Avery looked up at the Gedo Statue. It had begun to morph and its eyes had what looked like blood draining from them. She focused her energy and looked at Kakashi. "What were you thinking?"

"Maybe try blowing its head off?" Kakashi suggested as he built up his chakra for his own attempt at the statue's integrity.

Avery nodded once and looked at the statue. The thing was huge. Even if she could blow up its head, it would probably take so much energy that it would incapacitate her for the rest of the war. She knew she had to try though and she gathered her energy up before she threw her hands out at the Gedo Statue.

Nothing happened.

"I'm either out of range, or the Gedo Statue is too great," she said. "Its huge, it would take a ton of energy to blow it up."

Kakashi nodded, "That's alright, I've just about got enough chakra to try this." He closed his eye and muttered, "Mangekyo Sharingan!"

Avery watched his Sharingan eye morph into the specialized secondary version of his former teammate's eye. She knew what he was going to do now.

"Kamui," he said and she saw the air around the statue's head getting blurry and swirl into a whirlpool. She thought he about had it when suddenly it completely broke, like nothing happened. "Agh," Kakashi said falling to one knee. "What in the-? I've never heard of the kamui being blocked or undone like that," he said in astonishment.

"Kakashi! Naruto and Gai need help," Avery said pointing toward their comrades.

"Well, I guess we'll have to take care of him first anyway," Kakashi said standing and preparing his lightning blade. "Bee, can you get us over there?"

"Yeah, I got you, yo," he said and then he threw them both toward Naruto and Gai. Avery tucked herself close to Kakashi as he broke through the rocks still floating in the air to get to Naruto. Avery realized though that he wasn't going to make it and orbed, disappearing from Kakashi's side.

Avery reappeared between Tobi and Naruto, stopping him from getting his hand on Naruto and she kicked, only to have her foot go through his middle while Kakashi's lightning kunai went through his head. She heard him grunt a little and she fell, landing on one of the floating boulders.

"Naruto, keep going! I'll get the kunai," Kakashi shouted. "Kamui!"

Naruto nodded and went for an attack at Tobi's face, passing through the left side of his head. The four of them regrouped together, standing there watching him as he turned. Trying to figure out what they could possibly do differently. It was when he turned and revealed there was a crack in his mask, just under his left eye.

"It looks like your attack landed!" Gai said and gave Naruto a thumb up, "Good work Naruto! Let's keep going."

"I didn't think you had hit him," Avery said confused.

"No, it didn't look like he did to me either," Kakashi said. They all looked at him, waiting for him to continue.

"You're doing that being too vague thing again," Gai said. "What is going on?"

"Yeah what is it?" Naruto added.

Avery tapped back into her empathy as Kakashi tried to figure out what was happening. She had her suspicions; but those suspicions were impossible… and yet.

That was when they all realized Bee was going in for an attack on the Gedo Statue, including Tobi.

"Do not mock me!" he shouted as he put up a fiery red barrier around the statue. The second the eight tails hand touched the barrier, it became engulfed in the same red substance as the shield and he was acting like it burned him.

"Are you alright octopops? Eighto?"

"Do I look alright?" Bee's voice said as he shook his fist.

Avery focused on what Kakashi was feeling as he went through the motions in his head. After a few minutes of letting him think it over, she realized his heart was squeezing around the idea of the same implausible theory she had landed on.

"Everyone, I have a theory I want to test," Kakashi said softly and he relayed his plan to them. Avery nodded once and orbed away, watching from another location. Everyone else focused on the plan. Kakashi and Naruto split up as Gai went crashing through the large rock above Tobi. Tobi made a sarcastic comment about Gai's power before he landed and began attacking Tobi with his nun chucks.

"You're a fool! You forget my eye can read your movements!" Tobi spat at him as he caught the ends of his nun chucks. Then he began to use the kamui to take them in.

"Now Naruto!" Gai shouted and Naruto came sailing over the top of Gai with a rasengan. Just before it could hit though, Kakashi used his kamui on the rasengan and Naruto went sailing through Tobi's right shoulder.

It was only a second after Naruto had passed through him that Tobi's shoulder had blown up, like it had been hit by a rasengan.

Avery orbed back to standing next to Kakashi, "Definitely what we thought," she muttered to him. Kakashi and Tobi's Sharingan were linked. They spent the next several minutes trying to explain how the jutsu worked. Avery was tuned into Kakashi, Gai, and Tobi with her empathy; waiting, listening, feeling for one or more of them to react. Tobi remained cool and collected, though he seethed with hate just below the surface. It wasn't until they mentioned the Sharingan were actually connected that Gai realized what that could mean.

"Just where did you get that eye?" Kakashi asked, suddenly enraged at the idea someone could have stolen his friend's other eye.

"Oh, about the last great ninja war I imagine. The battle of Kannabi Bridge I imagine," he mused lightly. "The same place where you became Kakashi of the Sharingan."

Avery could feel Kakashi's anger boiling below the surface. Her sessions with him at his apartment working to keep a hold on her empathy were really paying off right now. She was able to just listen and feel without getting overwhelmed. However when Kakashi went to ask him about what he was saying.

"I thought I told you to shut your mouth! Your words are meaningless!" Tobi shouted at him. They were locked in a death glare, sparks practically flying between them. Avery could feel all the hate in this man's heart being directed straight at Kakashi in this moment. The more he talked, the more they stood there, the more he felt. She could tell he was trying to suppress it, but it wasn't working anymore. The more he spoke, the more he spewed his speech about regrets and dreams, the angrier he and Kakashi both felt.

"I shall create a world where it is unnecessary for anyone to make pathetic excuses in front of a grave," he spat toward the end.

Naruto stepped forward, shouting about his dream and telling him he was wrong.

"Naruto, what if you failed to keep those things that Jiraiya and the fourth Hokage entrusted you with?" Tobi sneered and continued to press on that the world was an empty place where shinobi couldn't be trusted to keep their promises and why his dream would be the solution for all of that.

Avery couldn't believe he was saying these things to Naruto, her heart sank for him, until she realized that he wasn't sad, or even angry…he was determined. He was determined to show Tobi how wrong he was, determined to find out who he really was, and determined to stop him from creating this dream world he spoke of.

Suddenly, Avery felt the emotions coming from Naruto shift. The emotions were of a boasting pride as Kurama spoke again from Naruto's body.

"Sorry, but your words don't apply to this guy," he said pointing Naruto's thumb at his headband. He proceeded to tell Tobi about how much Naruto has accomplished and why he will continue to accomplish everything. Avery could feel the warmth radiating from Naruto as Kurama's words and emotions spilled out. She smiled gently as Naruto's body went back into the orange aura of Kurama's chakra.

"Naruto, you will not fail," Kurama's voice said as Naruto launched at Tobi. One giant tailed beast arm came out of Naruto and attempted to squish Tobi, getting him to move through him using the teleportation technique Kakashi had discovered he used to make it seem like he allowed people and objects to pass through him.

"Kakashi!" Avery shouted.

"Kakashi, we ought to…" Gai trailed off seeing Kakashi's face.

Avery understood Kakashi's feelings very well right now, but she needed him to snap out of it. "Kakashi you need to focus right now! Naruto needs you!"

"The more diversions, the better the attack, we need to get in there!" Gai shouted.

"Kakashi, I know what you're thinking," Avery said. "I came to the same conclusion myself, but right now we need to focus on the present. We can't focus on sentimentalities or guilt right now," she said and gripped his shoulder. "We have to go help Naruto!"

Tobi continued to attack Naruto, "Look at you attacking all by yourself! How foolish!" he said as he sent three huge shuriken flying at him. Bee stopped two of them but missed one that Naruto caught with his tailed beast mode in the mouth of the fox.

"I'm not alone, don't forget about Kurama, eighto, octopops, bushier brow sensei, Avery, and Kakashi sensei too! They're all with me," Naruto said confidently.

"You've got a winning record against me right now, so don't be letting this slow you down," Gai said.

Kakashi nodded at Gai and focused in that instant. He ran with Gai as Avery ran around the other way. She was keeping tabs on everyone, but as Tobi threw his words about the true power of the kamui at Kakashi, she realized he wasn't even concerned they knew the trick to his jutsu.

Tobi jumped up until he was a good distance above them and began releasing objects from his kamui that ended up being chains that could bind the tailed beasts. He hit Bee with a handful of them as he shielded Naruto from getting hit.

Naruto quickly made a clone and sent it, rasengan in hand, at Tobi. Kakashi started to use his kamui and for a minute, it looked like it hadn't worked because it looked like Tobi had kicked the clone. That was when the real Naruto sent the tailed beast bomb at him to make him go to the other plane. That was where Avery knew Naruto's clone really was. By now, he should have Tobi's mask in a thousand pieces.

Avery ran over to Kakashi and began to heal him. "I'm sure it worked," she said as Gai helped Kakashi sit up. Avery slowly healed Kakashi, making sure to clear the blood from under his left eye.

They all waited and watched as Naruto and the previously masked man reappeared. And once Kakashi and Gai saw his face, Avery knew that she had been correct.

The masked man had been Obito Uchiha.

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Only one more chapter of super canon… in all reality this chapter has a lot of original in it mixed into the canon crap. The next chapter will be the same. I tried to make it canon but not too canon. Though it's still very canon even in my opinion…

The next chapter will also be the LAST chapter of part one. Part two will be its own story! Exciting!


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: I do not own anything mentioned in this story.

Warnings: Incredibly canon (though out of order) and many possible spoilers from war era.

This is the last chapter of part one! Next week's chapter will be under a separate story which is going to be the beginning of part two! This story was It All Leads To You and as cheesy at it is, the next one will most likely be "It All Lead To You" Or something to that effect. It will be MUCH less canon.

Please let me know what you guys all think so far and see you in part 2! Thank you so much for the follows, views, and comments I've gotten so far. It's SO appreciated!

And now: the chapter!

ENJOY!

 _Chapter Fourteen_

Silence followed the revelation of Tobi. Avery could feel the air around them thicken with the palpable tension radiating from Kakashi as he stared at Obito. Naruto was off to the side, looking back and forth between Obito and the three standing together; all staring knowingly at Obito.

"You… you survived," Kakashi breathed.

"Who is he?" Naruto demanded.

"He was our classmate, and an Uchiha," Gai said, emotion thick in his voice. "We thought he died in action during the last war."

The longer Avery stood there, the more intense the feelings around her became. She could feel Obito's anger rising above Kakashi's pain. Her skin was hot and she could feel the blood pounding through her heart as she stood there just behind Kakashi and Gai; her gaze was fixed on Obito.

"But… if you were alive," Kakashi's voice was laced with pain and guilt. "Why not come forward? Why not come home?"

"It was irrelevant whether I survived or not, why simply doesn't matter," Obito responded harshly. "Although, if you really want a reason…"

He paused and the intensity of his stare became more. Avery could feel his anger coursing through her as if it were her own, over even Kakashi's pain. Could she really lose it now? After all the training and practice she put herself through, she couldn't afford to lose control of her empathy. She closed her eyes and tried to shut it off, but Obito's anger made it impossible to do.

"It's because…"

Rage made Avery's eyes fly back open, the more Obito had to think about Kakashi the angrier he became. Though it seemed to Avery he was trying not to let his anger consume him, which was the only thing saving Avery from succumbing to the emotions she couldn't block out.

"You let Rin die," Obito finally finished.

Pain lanced through Kakashi as Gai audibly gasped next to him. Kakashi's eyes widened with guilt and shock at his former teammate. The feelings so intense Kakashi felt frozen in his place.

"Oh come on, what's with that look Kakashi?" Obito laughed, though that laugh did not reach his eyes. His eyes still swirled with loathing and betrayal.

"So you're not going to condemn me?" Kakashi asked of his long lost friend.

"What would I gain from criticizing this reality? I have no use of such things from a world soon to end," Obito stated, his arms held out to the side. The way he was acting it was like he expected to be some kind of God in this new world.

It was while Kakashi's teammates were trying to snap him out of his emotions that Obito realized it. The blue hair just behind Kakashi belonged to that girl from the day Sasuke fought Itachi. Obito watched her, her bright, violet eyes swirling with blind anger and hate. Obito tried to remember to that day; she had gotten passed him only to lose her control over something. Her hands had gone to her head and she had screamed out. He recalled the research he had done of her kind and realized what the anger swirling in her eyes was.

It was his own anger. And he knew just how to test his theory.

He hadn't really wanted to admit to feeling so much over this situation, but the temptation was just too much to resist. He would have to push it soon.

"I'm done talking to you all anyway," Obito spoke, interrupting their talking. "Fire style and die," he spat as his kamui swirled the air in front of him just before he sent a trail of fire through it.

Avery realized it was about to hit them and was trying to find the will to raise her arm and stop it when nine huge, glowing yellow tails flashed in front of them and stopped the fire trail. When the tails went away, Avery's eyes met Obito's and she could feel the last little piece of her control snap as his anger coursed through both of them.

Fire and fury flooded through her veins as she heard Obito's unspoken words in her head. _I trusted you… how could you let her die... how can you live with yourself knowing it was your jutsu that killed her._ Avery wanted to clutch her head as pain screamed through it. She had didn't want to lose all control to his anger; she was afraid what would happen. She remembered back to when Sasuke broke her. If it had been Itachi in front of her that day, she would have attacked him.

"How dare you…" she finally spoke, her control of her actions was gone.

Kakashi froze in his place as Gai and Naruto both turned to look at Avery. Her words had not been what Naruto was expecting to hear from her.

"Avery?" Naruto asked cautiously.

"How dare you flash that damned eye around. You were supposed to protect her… and instead you _killed_ her," as the word killed passed her lips, she waved her arm at Kakashi and sent him flying through the air unexpectedly.

"Avery! Stop!" Naruto shouted as he tried to grab hold of her. As soon as he came close to touching her she pushed her blue shield out around her, shoving both him and Gai backward as she stalked Kakashi.

He hadn't gotten to his feet by the time she got to him and she reached down to grip the front of his vest. She raised her fist to punch him and stopped in her tracks. His eyes gazed at hers as if to say he deserved this and it broke Obito's hold on her. She stayed frozen in place as she struggled in her own mind over what was happening to her and very slowly, the grip she had on Kakashi's vest loosened and she stepped away from him.

She stayed there looking at Kakashi for another moment before she carefully plucked a couple shuriken from her back and held them between her fingers. "Get out of my head," she growled as she turned and flicked the shuriken at Obito. Of course they past right through him, but she was able to help Kakashi to his feet by then.

As she and Kakashi rejoined Naruto and Gai, something hit the ground next to Obito. A huge cloud of dust shrouded the view of the newcomer but Avery could feel malice emanating from the new addition.

"Looks like you're having fun here… Obito."

The voice that had spoken was low and menacing. Every sound in it screamed dangerous and deadly. Avery strained her eyes to see the man that belonged to the voice and gasped when Naruto finally saw who it was.

"That's…." Kakashi breathed.

"But he's Madara!" Naruto cried softly.

Avery used the distraction as a chance to shut her empathy down inside herself. Though Naruto's emotions were becoming strong ones of worry and anger as he realized what Madara being here meant and it made Avery pause.

"If you're here, what has happened to everyone over there?" Naruto asked of Madara.

"Over there?" Madara asked like he had no idea what the boy was talking about.

"I ASKED YOU WHAT HAPPENED!" Naruto shouted as the nine tails chakra surged around him.

"Hmpf," Madara sounded unimpressed, "I wouldn't know. But my guess is none of them are doing too well," he sneered evilly.

Avery gasped as she realized who he had been fighting up until this moment. If they weren't doing well…

 _No… Gaara._

"Kakashi, the Kage," Avery groaned.

"Can you get to them?"

"I'm willing to try," she said as she closed her eyes.

"You're not going anywhere, witch," Obito shouted and stepped forward to take her into his Kamui.

"No!" she shouted but he was too quick and she was sucked into the time space of his and Kakashi's linked eyes. She hit the ground hard and rolled to her knees. "Damn it," she muttered. She needed to get to Gaara, but she wasn't sure she could orb out of time space. She looked around; she was standing on one of many blue stone platforms. Each one of the platforms was standing at a different height with black nothingness separating each of them.

She pulled the kunai Gaara had given her when she left the sand and held it in her hands. She took a breath and closed her eyes, but as she suspected, it was useless here. She needed to get back out of here.

As if on cue, Kakashi appeared in the time space with her. He landed flat on his back on the same platform she was standing on and laid there panting. Avery immediately bent to check on him, finding he was unharmed except for a gash in his left leg just below his knee. She held her hands over his knee and felt the warm, gold light as it reached to heal his wound while he lay there.

Kakashi's emotions were still filled with guilt and turmoil. Seeing Obito after all this time was too much for him to really handle and she wanted so badly to be able to help him.

"Kakashi, you're not trash," she told him, hearing his words through his emotions. "You are an amazing sensei and a great captain, you had a rough past and have worked through that. You must see that," she said trying to reach him.

He sat up and prepared to go back out into the battle. "Are you ready to go find the Kage?" He asked, completely ignoring her words.

She sighed and clutched Gaara's kunai closer to her, "Yes."

"Then let's go," he said and used kamui to get her and himself back out. They appeared a few paces in front of Obito, Kakashi panting heavily from overusing his chakra.

"Avery, go," he said before turning his attention to Obito.

As much as she wanted to stay and help him she knew she needed to go quickly or Obito would just take her back in. She orbed quickly, not really aiming very carefully and she reappeared in a deserted forest not terribly far from the battlefield she was just at. She could see the red tower that still surrounded the ten tails.

She turned away from it, she needed her focus to be on her task. She needed to find the Kage. She held Gaara's kunai to her heart as she closed her eyes and tried to find his chakra, his emotions, his anything. When she couldn't find him, she had to push the panic that was rising in her heart down and try another approach.

She tried probing for Tsunade. Without knowing how far their battlefield was she had no idea how far to try and push her empathy out. She closed her eyes against her frustration and tried picturing them; Tsunade's blonde pigtails and Gaara's red hair with pretty aqua eyes. She orbed once she felt her lips curve up in a smile for her friend and when she got to wherever she had appeared at, her heart dropped into her stomach.

The air reeked with the smell of blood. She couldn't tell where she was, all she knew was she must have been close. She ran toward where she could feel the sting of chakra dying in the air and almost cried when she came across Gaara's lifeless form. She knelt next to him and felt for a pulse and for a horrific moment, she felt nothing. She was about to start crying when she felt his slow pulse against her fingertips and she sobbed in relief. She looked around, where was Tsunade and the rest of them?

She decided she would make sure Gaara wasn't going to die first. She held her hands out over him and watched the warm golden light heal his injuries. When she heard his breathing coming stronger and more evenly she decided he would be okay enough for her to move on and try to find someone else. She stood and started looking around, only to be startled when she came across five huge slugs and a plethora of much smaller slugs.

"Lady Katsuyu!" Avery sighed in relief, that meant Tsunade was alive. She had only ever seen her once during the Pein attack. She had protected everyone that was still alive when he had totally destroyed the entire village.

"Avery! I am so glad to see you!" Katsuyu's nervous voice sounded from the biggest of the slugs. That was when Avery realized the four other large slugs were wandering off to find the other Kage.

"I just healed Gaara a bit; he's over that way about six feet. Are the rest alive?" She asked, not bothering to worry about Tsunade if Katsuyu was here.

"Yes, my clones are getting to them now, but I won't be able to help them much more than keeping them alive, not with Tsunade in this condition," the largest version said in her soft voice.

Avery looked up at Katsuyu at her words, and then looked down to see what the infestation of the small Katsuyus were covering. Tsunade's body was split in two, and they were trying to get her two pieces put together so they could heal her. Tsunade's face was different too, her once smooth, young skin was now wrinkled and fragile looking.

"Oh my go-" Avery started to say before she heard voices approaching. She had been so focused on the Kage she hadn't noticed there were three people approaching them.

"DAMN YOU SUIGETSU!"

"Why are you attacking me? Doesn't everyone that sees a slug want to sprinkle salt on it?"

"Pipe down, let's go."

Three shinobi leapt down to where Katsuyu had Tsunade and the other four Kage gathered for healing. Gaara was the only one of the other five Kage not totally engulfed in the other pieces of Lady Katsuyu's smaller pieces. He had an even smaller one sitting on his chest, trying to heal him. Avery took a look at the three newcomers; she only recognized the redhead with the glasses. She was the girl Kakashi had carried back to the village after Sakura tried to kill Sasuke all by herself a little over a month ago. She was barefoot and in prisoners clothing with chainless shackles on her wrists and ankles.

The other two were both men Avery didn't recognize, though one of them very strongly resembled one of the reanimated hidden mist sword ninja. He had white hair and sharp teeth and pale purple eyes. He also looked totally grossed out by all of the pieces of Katsuyu.

The other man standing before them had long black hair with extremely white pale skin. He had purple around each of his snakelike eyes that ran halfway down the sides of his nose. He had a scowl on his face as he took in the scene before him.

"Wait, was the Hokage always a granny?!" the redhead said.

"It's not like she had a really long torso either?" the white haired one groaned. He looked like he was going to vomit.

"It seems you were reckless, Tsunade," the last said.

"Orochimaru?" Tsunade said confused, struggling to look to see where the familiar voice was coming from.

 _Wait just one second now… Orochimaru!? I thought he was dead!_ Avery thought as she looked at the man again. This had been the man that had tempted Sasuke away from the village and kept him for three years. She knew the redhead had been working with Sasuke at one point, but the other? She didn't know anything about him.

Behind her, Katsuyu prepared to attack, so Avery also went into a defensive mode. She would protect the Kage no matter what.

"Katsuyu, I only came to help the Kage. I'm not a foe," Orochimaru said calmly.

"I don't have any reason to believe you!" Katsuyu said. "Don't trust him Avery," she warned.

"I thought he was dead," Avery muttered softly.

"If I do anything that makes you suspect me, you're welcome to take me down with your acid," Orochimaru said. He completely ignored the way the white haired man had scurried away like a little kid when he thought Katsuyu was going to spray at them.

When Katsuyu didn't back down, the redhead scurried off as well. Avery was waiting for something to happen, when they all heard Tsunade struggling to speak. Avery and Katsuyu both looked at her and eventually Katsuyu backed down and decided to trust him.

"Now then," Orochimaru said and turned to see one of the other Kage, but not the other three. He asked Katsuyu about the others and she explained they were inside her other fragments. She was having a hard time healing them in the condition Tsunade was in since her healing was directly linked to Tsunade's healing jutsu.

"Is that how it always worked? Then again, I've seen Tsunade in such bad shape, so it must be true," Orochimaru said.

"I've been trying to focus on healing, but the summoning is weakening," she said.

"We need to get Tsunade's body back together," Avery said and bent at one side to start trying to carefully put her back together.

"Suigetsu, help the girl," Orochimaru ordered.

"Nah, she looks like she's got it," Suigetsu responded.

"Now," he ordered.

Suigetsu reluctantly reached down to help Avery put Tsunade's lower half with her upper half. "These slugs are so slimy and gross," he complained.

"Yeah well so are you Suigetsu!" the redhead shouted at him, though he wasn't listening to her as he was too grossed out by a little Katsuyu making her way up his back.

Avery began to heal her middle section once they had her body back together, but it would take some time and a fair amount of energy to do.

"Karin, let Tsunade bite you so she can heal," Orochimaru ordered the girl.

"Whaaaaaat? But I don't want anyone but Sasuke to bite me," she whined.

"HA! You just admitted you're in love with Sasuke!" Suigetsu said pointing at Karin.

"Wha? Uh… No way you're completely wrong! How could I… that damn Sasuke!"

"That wasn't even a sentence," Suigetsu rolled his eyes.

"He tried to kill me and it was irresistible! Uh… no it wasn't," Karin looked conflicted about how she felt.

"You were covered in bite marks long before Sasuke," Suigetsu pointed out. "How does your body even work? You're the weird one here."

"SAY THAT AGAIN!"

"Hey children, can we cut the crap and work here? I could use the help healing her," Avery snapped. She really didn't have any patience for either of these two people after hearing even a second of them talk.

"She's right, you are both freaks so shut up, or I'll have my snakes tie you up and then crawl in your mouths and possess you," Orochimaru threatened darkly as his neck grew three feet and a just as long tongue flopped out of his mouth.

"You're the freakiest," Karin muttered. Avery had to agree as she stared at him.

Eventually Karin came over to Tsunade and lifted her head so she could bite down on her arm. She began to suck gently and immediately she was becoming younger in appearance and her healing was going much faster. Avery was staring at Karin, trying to figure out what was in her blood that did that.

Unless Tsunade wasn't sucking on her blood.

"She's sucking your chakra isn't she?" Avery asked as it dawned on her.

"Yes, I can basically feed other people my chakra," Karin responded. "Though she's taking so much I might age into a hag," Karin complained.

Once they had Tsunade back in one piece, Avery sat back and took a deep breath while Karin helped Tsunade sit up.

"Thank goodness Tsunade! You're going to be okay!" Katsuyu was saying.

"Tsunade, you could be a little more grateful," Orochimaru said smugly.

Avery had no interest in their conversation so she moved on to the other Kage. "Katsuyu let me help them."

"Heal Lord Gaara more, I can get the others," Katsuyu said.

Avery nodded and kneeled down next to her good friend. She placed her hands over him once more and let the gold light erupt from her hands again. She was half listening to Tsunade and Orochimaru speaking about Jiraiya and his death. She felt her heart sink a little, she still partially felt responsible for that. She shook it off and kept her focus on Gaara. She wanted to see his pretty aqua eyes look at her and the smile he reserved mostly for her and Temari.

As if on command, Gaara's eyes fluttered a little. He blinked rapidly as his strength began to come back to him. Once he could actually hold his eyes open he looked around until his gaze rested on Avery.

"Avery," he breathed. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm healing you, duh. And you're the Kazekage, come on now," she teased through the tears of joy she had spilling on her cheeks.

Gaara laughed weakly as he raised a hand to wipe the tears off her cheek, "where's Naruto?"

"With Kakashi and Gai, he's alright. At least he was last time I saw him," she said.

"Sasuke and the first four Hokage will be joining the battle shortly," Orochimaru announced as if it was no big deal.

"What?" Avery asked twirling around as she finished healing Gaara. Her head spun with the loss of energy but she would tough through it.

"Sasuke has decided to help fight," he shrugged nonchalantly.

Before Avery had a chance to respond the ground shook a little and a large explosion could be seen off in the distance. There was another just a minute later, and another. After everything had been silent for a moment Avery stiffened as she heard Shikamaru's father's voice in her ear. It was the first time the headquarters had reached out to her as well; she didn't think they could at first.

Her blood ran cold as she learned they were being targeted, not only that, but were seconds from death. Immediately she looked to Tsunade, "I have to go," she said quickly and orbed. She orbed frantically without thinking, only thinking of saving the people at headquarters.

But right when she would have landed at headquarters, the attack hit and it rebounded her orb back and she appeared, landing on her side and skidding to a halt by someone's feet.

"Avery?"

Shikamaru's voice sounded even, despite his father's death only seconds ago. He reached down to help her up to her feet and Avery coughed with the pain she was in. there were burn marks on her face from where the explosion had grazed her even in her orb.

"What happened to you?" Shikamaru said, momentarily distracted by her appearance.

"I… I tried," she responded weakly. "I tried… to save them."

Shikamaru's heart clenched. Avery had tried to save his and Ino's dads. He didn't even have time to respond to that before he turned back. "Well, you're just in time to help us fulfill their final plan."

Avery looked up to see that Madara and Obito were atop a very disproportionate and disturbing looking figure. They were attacked to it somehow, though she wasn't sure of how that was exactly. Whatever it was it didn't really look pleasant, though they didn't seem to mind.

"Is that ten tails?" she asked Shikamaru.

"Yes, it is."

"Where's Naruto?" She demanded.

"He's around here somewhere, we haven't lost him," Shikamaru said looking off to the side. "He's letting the nine tails rebuild his chakra so he's supposed to be lying low."

As they spoke, Obito made a move. The ten-tails raised its ten tails with hand-like ends and out of them spouted hundreds of thousands of wooden spikes that went shooting down at the shinobi around it. All around people were dying and trying to deflect the attacks. Avery stepped forward and pushed her energy and pushed out the biggest shield she had ever let out, covering a circumference of twenty feet. She let as many people as she could fit come and stand within it while she blocked the wooden stakes that were sailing through the air.

She could see white balls of chakra exploding in the air and she knew they were Naruto's rasenshuriken. That meant he was at least in sage mode and was most definitely alive. Her heart soared with relief, up until she felt a horrible pain go through her. The pain of someone losing a brother… Hinata's pain.

 _Neji._

One of the stone ninja had stopped the ten tails enough for the armed forces to go in and attack. She let go of her shield and let her senses take over and tried to find him. She couldn't let him die, no way. If there was anyone she felt she needed to save, it was him.

She took a few steps in his direction as soon as she found him, but she feared she would be too late. She closed her eyes, "Shikamaru, help me."

He came over to her, along with Choji and Ino, "What can we do?" Shikamaru asked.

"Hold onto me and fuel your chakra into me," she said. They did as she asked and she took a deep breath. "NEJI!" she screamed.

She waited a moment and smiled when it worked, Neji's nearly lifeless body appeared before her in white and blue iridescent lights. She quickly removed the two stakes from his body and began to heal him.

Obito was still talking to Naruto, shouting at him about how useless his words were. No one seemed to notice she had stolen Neji. Tenten, Gai and Lee all ran forward when they realized Neji was here. Tenten crashed to her knees next to them, tears in her eyes. She needed to get him away, before they took notice he was gone, so she could heal him properly.

"I'm taking him away from here," she said to Shikamaru.

"Go," Shikamaru said, "we've got this."

"I'm coming too," Tenten said stubbornly.

Avery didn't have time to argue, so she put a hand on her shoulder and a hand on Neji and orbed them both away. She got as far as she dared to go without healing Neji and stopped. She took a fraction of a second to realize she was getting better at orbing the more she did it, but she couldn't appreciate the fact because Neji was barely alive.

She thrust her hands over the top of him and began healing him, throwing all the energy she still had into it; which Avery knew wasn't much. She was dangerously low after everything she had been doing right in a row, especially all the orbing. While she was getting better, it still wasn't the easiest power she had to use.

Avery glanced at Tenten; she had moved to Neji's side and was holding his hand. Avery was trying not to let her empathy take away from her remaining energy, but she couldn't help but feel Tenten's pain as the man she secretly loved was so close to death.

"Have you ever told him, Tenten?" she asked the brunette.

Tenten didn't even look surprised. She knew about Avery's empathy power and it wasn't hard to believe that she could be putting off her true emotions about Neji in this moment.

"No," her voice cracked through her tears. "I had always been too afraid to tell him."

"What are you afraid of?" Avery asked. Talking was helping; she wasn't as focused on her energy level and was more focused on the healing.

"I was afraid he would laugh, or that he wouldn't feel the same way, or something stupid like that."

Avery smiled a little. Insecurity was usually such a waste, but it was almost endearing coming from someone like Tenten. "What do you think he's going to think when he wakes to you holding his hand?"

Tenten didn't say anything for a few minutes. She suddenly started shaking her head with a small smile on her lips.

"He would have died without you. I don't care what he thinks, I have to tell him. He almost never knew," Tenten's tears were coming fast, rolling down her cheeks and dripping off her chin. "I won't keep it from him any longer."

Avery smiled as her own tears pooled in her eyes. She could feel her hands starting to shake as she continued to try to keep her focus going. They could still hear the battle going on behind them, and suddenly Tenten and Neji had a red, bubbly cloud around them.

"Nine tails cloak," Tenten said.

"What the hell is that?" Avery asked breathlessly. Her energy was getting so low she was starting to fear she wouldn't be able to save him after all.

"It's a bubble of nine tails chakra. It's how Naruto has been protecting everyone on the battlefield. Well, one of the ways anyway," Tenten explained.

"Can you pass it to me?"

"I think so."

"Put your hands on top of mine," she said weakly.

Tenten did as she was instructed to do, and immediately Avery could feel the difference. The chakra was so powerful that even just touching it helped. Then as the red cloud crawled over her and she felt the chakra boosting her healing. It was incredible and within another minute, Neji was completely healed.

He sucked a huge breath into his air deficient lungs as his eyes flew open. He took a few more deep, but shaky breaths before he blinked a few times and looked around. He saw Avery and Tenten's faces swimming into his view and vaguely registered that one of them was holding his hand.

"Woah, hold on, give yourself a moment," Avery said holding his shoulder down when he tried to sit up. He laid his head back and relaxed as the nine tails cloak added to his chakra, building up his strength. As he became more aware, he realized it was Tenten holding his hand, and he squeezed hers in response. He thought she would let go when she felt him squeeze her hand, but instead, she squeezed his as well.

"Tenten," he breathed. "You're here."

"Of course I am," she said. She knew there were still tears on her cheeks, but she didn't care. She was not afraid of coming off as overemotional in this moment. "I couldn't leave you."

"I know."

"Neji, I love you," Tenten blurted. She couldn't help it, not after she almost just watched him die. She knew she needed to tell him. As soon as the words left her tongue, she felt a weight lift from her shoulders. Relief washed over her as she finally admitted something she had been keeping from him since their Genin days. Something that the only person she had ever actually told, aside from Avery, was Lee.

"I know, Tenten," he said again.

Avery watched Tenten stiffen as she realized it wasn't a secret from the one person she had been trying to keep it from. Then she felt painful pang in her heart when it sunk into Tenten's understanding that he didn't reciprocate the feeling.

Or so Tenten thought, but Avery knew better.

"Tenten," Neji breathed. He sat up, and this time Avery didn't stop him. His hands came up to wipe the tears from her cheeks and her eyes. He waited until he had manage to coax her eyes to meet his and he gave her something he rarely ever gave anyone; a smile.

"Tenten, I love you as well."

Avery smiled and sat back; keeping to herself while the two had their tender moment. However, she also knew they needed to get back to the battlefield.

"Hey, lovebirds, we gotta go," she said. The nine tails cloak helping her to feel ready to return. "Neji, are you alright?"

"Yes," he said softly. "We should go, we have to protect Naruto."

With that, they all stood up and she took their hands in hers and orbed them back to the battlefield, where they were greeted by the appearance of Sasuke. As they snuck back onto the scene; Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke, the original team seven, launched into action. Each of them had summoned their summoning and were attacking together.

It was time to take the control of this war back.

 **END OF PART ONE**

 **AUTHOR NOTE, THINGS HAPPENED VERY CANON, (well except the Tenten and Neji love but that's my business peoples.) BUT OUT OF ORDER. OOPS, SORRY NOT SORRY.**


	15. NOTE FROM AUTHOR

Hello all,

I am sorry my upload on the other story is so late. For everyone who doesn't already know, this story was continued in a second part! The title of the second part is "It all led to you" and things are getting interesting!

The upload today is very long. Please everyone let me know what you think. Looking forward to getting to bigger things in this fic! this chapter that went up tonight is a VERY big chapter.

Love you all and thanks for the support!


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